HISTORIC 
HOUSES OF 
NEW JERSEY 



HISTORIC 
HOUSES OF 
NEW JERSEY 

BY W. JAY MILLS 

WITH NUMEROUS PHOTOGRAVURE 

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DRAWINGS BY 

JOHN RAE &f FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 

AND RARE PRINTS 



PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
MCMII 



Copyright, 1902 
By J. B. LippiNcoTT Company 

Published October, 1902 



THE LIBRAftY Op 
CON 'J RES*, 

NOV. es ^tff^:^ 



\^Vbg 



Electrotyped and Printed hy 
J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, U. S. A. 



TO THE MEMORY 
OF 

MORTIMER MILLS 

THE FOLLOWING PAGES 

ARE 

INSCRIBED 



PREFACE 




NTIL now the State possessing 
the most inexhaustible supply 
of colonial, Revolutionary, and 
republican souvenirs has been 
almost neglected. Indeed, few 
5|} of the original thirteen States can 
be compared with New Jersey 
in the number and importance 
of its landmarks. Her society, too, was as intellectual 
as that which sprang from the rocks of Puritanism, and 
it formed a brilliant pageant, rivalling the glittering line 
of the cavaliers. There is scarcely an acre of soil in the 
northern part of the State not once pressed by the foot 
of the Revolutionary soldier, and there are few of the 
many hundreds of dwellings which have survived the 
march of a century that did not shelter at one time or 
another some of the heroes of '76, or the colonial dames 
and daughters who played scarcely less potent parts in 
the drama of our struggle for freedom. This is the only 
book to tell the true story of the old houses ot New 
Jersey, and such a record possesses deep significance for 
every American, as it has much more than a local or 
State interest. 

Of the glowing and passionate pictures of early days 
little more than the frames and the sentiment linger- 
ing about them now remain. It has been the author's 



PREFACE 



pleasure to fill in the frames with the portraits and the 
scenes that history and tradition, as contained in family 
recollection, in unpublished letters, and in local records 
suggest. Anecdote and gossip have supplied him with 
many a side-light on the great figures and their stirring 
times, and their chronicler will be satisfied if his story 
shall make more real the facts with which fancy delights 
to play. 

He believes he has used all diligence in the endeavor 
to make this book, within its scope, as complete and 
authentic as possible. To give a full list of the books 
consulted would be impracticable here ; he may only 
extend his thanks to all who have aided him in his 
research, and especially to acknowledge the courtesy 
of the following men and women : 

Mr. Edwin Manners, Colonel Edward A. Duer, Miss 
J. J. Boudinot, Mrs. Benjamin Schuyler Church, Miss 
Gertrude Parker Smith, Mrs. Susan Grand d'Hauteville, 
Mrs. Sydney N. Ogden, Miss C. Josephine Kingdon, 
Mrs. Oliphant Allison, Mr. Edward A. Stokes, Mr. 
David Murray, Miss Mary Clapier Coxe, Mr. James 
Buchanan, Mr. John B. Varick, Miss Sarah Van Sant- 
voord, Mrs. Augusta Dahlgren, Mrs. Charles H. Con- 
over, Mrs. Spencer Weart, Mr. Henry V. Condict, Mr. 
Francis B. Lee, Hon. John Whitehead, Colonel Richard 
F. Stevens, Mrs. Flavel McGee, Mrs. Emeline G. Pier- 
son, Miss Elenore B. Green, Mrs. Thomas Sinnickson, 
Jr., Miss Julie Fouche, Miss Anne H. Wharton, Mrs. 
Maud Wilder Goodwin, Mrs. Elizabeth K. Hale, Miss 
M. Antoinette Ouimby, Miss Helen Vincent King, Mr. 
R. W. Woodward, Mr. Turner Brakeley, Miss Mary 



PREFACE 



S. Austin, Miss Edna TofFey, Hon. Warren R. Dix, Dr. 
Leonard Gordon, Miss Fox Waite, Mr. Richard G. Sip, 
Miss Annie North, Miss M. Louise Edge, Miss Adele 
Sweeny, Miss Kate McFarlane, Miss Grace E. Peters, 
Mr. John R. Stevenson, Mrs. Joseph Revere, Miss Hulda 
Brakeley, Miss Carohne Lalor, Miss Esther Burdick, 
Mrs. Susan Biddle, Miss Emily Paterson, and Mr. Liv- 
ingston Montgomery. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Prospect Hall, Jersey City . . . . • • ^3 

Where Colonel Richard Varick entertained the Marquis de 
Lafayette and his son. 

The White House, Jersey City. . . . • .20 

Where Aaron Burr is supposed to have arranged his memoirs. 

The Van Vorst Mansion, Jersey City . . . -27 

Whose kitchen step was " a corner-stone of liberty." 

The Prior House, Jersey City . . . . . '34 

Where " Light-Horse Harry" and his troop stopped for re- 
freshment before the Battle of Paulus Hook. 

Castle Point, Hoboken . . . • • • '39 

Where Colonel John Stevens planned " Hobuck, the Beauti- 
ful," the pleasure resort of early New York. 

Astor Villa, Hoboken ....... 4" 

Where John Jacob Astor the first entertained the literati of 
the country. 

Highwood, Weehawken . . . . • • • 5^ 

Where "the great little Dickens" was feasted by James Gore 
King. 

The Sip Manor, Jersey City Heights . . . . .61 

Where Lord Cornwallis stopped when in Bergen. 

Apple-tree House, Jersey City Heights . . . .68 

Where Lafayette and General Washington ate under the shade 
of an apple-tree. 

Retirement Hall, Greenville . . . . . -73 

Where Prince William Henry, son of George III., is said to 
have dined. 

The Parsonage, Newark . . . . • • • 7^ 

Where all Newark sought comfort during the dark days of 
the Revolution. 

xi 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Frenchmen's Place, Newark . . . . . .84 

Where the great statesman Talleyrand enjoyed the delights 
of Jersey's garden-spot. 

The Decatur House, Newark . . . . . - 9^ 

Where Commodore Stephen Decatur came to take part in the 
Newark fox-hunts. 

Petersborough, Newark . . . . . . .96 

Where Colonel Peter Schuyler, a hero of the French and 
Indian War, rivalled in his mode of living the Schuylers of 
Albany. 

Cockloft Hall, Newark . . . . . . .101 

Where Gouverneur Kemble entertained the famous " Salma- 
gundi Set." 

Liberty Hall, Elizabeth . . . . . . .108 

Where Susannah Livingston saved the Governor's state papers 
by acting for the British. 

Boxwood Hall, Elizabeth . . . , . • • 1 5 

Where General Washington met the " Committee of Con- 
gress" and lunched on the day of his inauguration. 

The Belcher Mansion, Elizabeth . . . . .121 

The scene of the war-time wedding of " Caty" Smith and 
Elisha Boudinot. 

Hampton Place, Elizabeth . . . . . .127 

Where General Winiield Scott retired when there were no 
more worlds to conquer. 

The Franklin Palace, Perth Amboy . . . . .132 

Where Benjamin Franklin pleaded with his son to espouse the 
cause of the Colonists. 

Kearny Cottage, Perth Amboy . . . . . '139 

Where ' ' Madam Scribblerus' ' taught Captain James Lawrence 
of " Don't give up the ship" fame the love of poetry. 

The Bartow House, Perth Amboy . . . . -151 

Where the art historian WiUiam Dunlap did his first drawings. 

The Parker Castle, Perth Amboy . . . . .158 

Where the Royalist Society of Perth Amboy said their fare- 
wells after the Revolution. 



CONTENTS 



Mount Pleasant Hall, Freneau . . . . .164 

Where James Madison wooed in vain the sister of Philip 
Freneau, the poet of the Revolution. 

The Burrowes Mansion, Matawan . . . . • ^75 

Where the Burrowes Revolutionary tragedy occurred. 

The Hankinson Mansion, Freehold . . . . • 183 

Where General Clinton and his officers passed the night before 
the Battle of Monmouth. 

Cincinnati Hall, Freehold . . . . . .192 

Where the noted Dr. Thomas Henderson entertained the old 
Freehold neighborhood. 

The Ford Mansion, Morristown . . . . .201 

Which stands next to Mt. Vernon in historic interest. 

The Campfield House, Morristown ..... 209 

The scene of young Alexander Hamilton's romantic courtship 
of Betsey Schuyler. 

The Sansay House, Morristown ..... 220 

Where a dancing-master gave a ball to a marquis. 

The Condict House, Morristozvn . . . . .227 

Where Mrs. Silas Condict gave sewing-bees for her country's 
welfare. 

The Stirling Manor, Stirling . . . . . ' ^■^l 

Where the daughter of an American peer wedded the matri- 
monial prize of New York. 

The Wallace House, Somerville . . . . .241 

Where "the Father of his country" and the "circle of 
brilliants" celebrated the first anniversary of the French Alli- 
ance. 

The Van Veghten House, Finder ne . . . . .248 

The scene of General Washington's "pretty little frisk." 

MoRVEN, Princeton . . . . . . . .252 

Where the first President of the United States and nearly all 
of his successors have dined. 

Rocky Hill House, Rocky Hill . . . . . .258 

Where General Washington wrote his farewell address to the 
Army. 

xiii 



CONTENTS 



FAGS 

Bloomsbury Court, Trenton ...... 264 

Where the founder of Trenton lived, and later the famous 
Cox family. 

The Hermitage, Trenton . . . . . . .270 

Where President John Adams stopped during the cholera scare 
in Philadelphia. 

Bow Hill, Trenton 277 

Where the beautiful Quakeress Annette Savage made her 
rejected overtures to Trenton society. 

The Hopkinson Mansion, Bordentown . . . .285 

Where Francis Hopkinson wrote his famous ditty " The 
Battle of the Kegs." 

Bonaparte House, Bordentown . . . . . .291 

Where Joseph Bonaparte, ex-King of Spain and Naples, re- 
fused the crown of Mexico. 

Lake Villa, Bordentown . . . . . . '299 

Where the Princess Zenaide translated Schiller, and Prince 
Charles wrote on American ornithology. 

Linden Hall, Bordentown . . . . . . '304 

Where the daughter-in-law of the Queen of the Two Sicilies 
taught a boarding-school. 

New Bellevue, Bordentown . . . . . • 312 

Where Thomas Paine the reformer constructed the model of 
his famous iron bridge. 

The Girard House, Mt. Holly ,319 

Where Stephen Girard, Philadelphia's philanthropist, sold buns 
and sweetmeats during the Revolution. 

The Creighton House, Haddonfield . . . . .326 

Where Dolly Payne prepared for her entrance into the great 
world. 

The Bradford Mansion, Burlington . . . . '331 

The home of the last of the Washington circle — the widow 
of Attorney-General William Bradford. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Bow Hill, Trenton, in 1875 . . . , frontispiece. 

From a drawing by Mr. Rae, from an old picture in the pos- 
session of Miss Julie Fouche, of Jersey City. 

Prospect Hall, Jersey City, IN1812. . . . -H 

From a drawing by Mr. Rae, from prints, descriptions, and 
recent photographs. 

The Van Vorst Mansion, Jersey City, in 1890 . . . 28 

From a photograph in the possession of Isaac Edge, Esq., of 
Jersey City. 

The Prior House, Jersey City, in 1825 . . . -34 

From a drawing by Mr. Rae, from an old pen-and-ink sketch 
in the possession of the author. 

Castle Point, Hoboken, showing River Walk leading past 

the Residence, 1832 . . . . . . '4^ 

From an old print in the possession of the author. 

Astor Villa, Hoboken, in 1834, . . . . .46 

From a drawing by Mr. Rae, from descriptions and recent 
photographs. 

The Sip Manor, Jersey City Heights, in 1902 . . .62 

From a drawing by Mr. Rae of the house as it is to-day. 

The Parsonage, Newark, in 1800 . . . . .78 

From a drawing by Mr. Rae, from old wood-cuts and sketches. 

Frenchmen's Place, Newark, in about 1830 . . .84 

From a drawing by Mr. Rae, from an old oil-painting in the 
possession of the Ailing family, of Newark. 
XV 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Hampton Place, Elizabeth, in i860 . . . . .128 

From a drawing by Mr. Rae, from old photographs in the pos- 
session of R. W. Woodward, Esq. 

The Franklin Palace, Perth Jmboy, in 1888 . . .132 

From a photograph by Mr. W. R. Tobias, of Perth Amboy. 

The Parker Castle, Perth Amboy, in 1888 . . .158 

From a photograph by Mr. W. R. Tobias, of Perth Amboy. 

The Burrowes Mansion, Matawan, in 1890 . . .176 

From a photograph in the possession of Mrs. Charles H. 
Conover, of Freehold. 

The Hankinson Mansion, Freehold, in 1870 . , .184 

From a drawing by Mr. Rae, from old photographs. 

The Ford Mansion, Morristozvn, in 1900 .... 202 
From a photograph taken at that time. 

Bloomsbury Court, Trenton, in 1850 . . , . 264 

From an old print in the possession of Edward A. Stokes, 
Esq., of Trenton. 

Lake Villa, Bordentown, showing a View of the Princess 

Zenaide's Garden in 1885 . . . . .300 

From an old photograph. 

Linden Hall, Bordentown, in 1902 . ' . . . . 304 

From a drawing by Mr. Rae of the house as it is to-day. 

The Bradford Mansion, Burlington, in i860 . . -332 

From a drawing by Mr. Rae, from an old picture in the pos- 
session of Miss J. J. Boudinot, of New York City. 



The initial letters and cover design were drawn especially for this volume 
by Edward Stratton Holloway. 



PROSPECT HALL 



JERSEY CITY 



WHERE COLONEL RICHARD VARICK ENTERTAINED 
THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE AND HIS SON 




[T the end of almost forgotten 
Essex Street, once the most 
aristocratic portion of Jersey- 
City, there is still standing the 
imposing remains of Colonel 
Richard Varick's Prospect Hall, 
now fallen to the low estate of 
an Italian tenement-house. The 
old mansion, which is of red brick and formerly had a 
pitch roof, was erected in the year 1807 by the jolly 
anecdotal Paulus Hook ferry-keeper, Major Hunt, whom 
Washington Irving mentions in his gossipy "Salmagundi" 
as a good story-teller. It was sold by him about a year 
later to Colonel Richard Varick, of New York, who, with 
Anthony Dey and Jacob RadclifF, two prominent leaders 
of the New York bar, founded the little city of Jersey, 
which they fondly hoped would some day rival the great 
metropolis across the river. 

Colonel Varick was one of the most interesting figures 
in our early history. He was General Washington's pri- 
vate and military secretary during the latter part of the 
Revolution and a member of his household, and previous 

13 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

to that had acted in a Uke capacity for General Philip 
Schuyler. Later he was appointed inspector-general 
at West Point, on the staff of Benedict Arnold, and he 
held that position until taken into the personal service 
of Washington. In early life he married Maria Roose- 
velt, the eldest daughter of Isaac Roosevelt, the presi- 
dent of the Bank of New York and owner of the finest 
residence on Queen Street. After the war he became 
mayor of New York, and was in office during the city's 
brilliant period as the seat of government, successfully 
guiding its corporation into the new century. 

His city dwelling was then on Broadway near Reade 
Street, but at the time he purchased Major Hunt's prop- 
erty he was living on Pine Street in a new and very 
pretentious mansion. Owing to his shrewdness and 
sagacity and the many emoluments of his office, he 
accumulated a vast fortune for those days, — estimated at 
five hundred thousand dollars. When he crossed the river 
to establish a home at Paulus Hook, it contained few 
houses of any size, with the exception of the Van Vorst 
manor on the water-front. 

The simple Hunt house facing the bay he immediately 
enlarged and improved, until in point of elegance it sur- 
passed many of the finest dwellings of Gotham. The 
proprietor of the "Frenchman's Garden"* at Bergen, 
Andre Michaux, — of whom a delightful fiction was cur- 
rent that he was the unfortunate Dauphin of Louis XVI., 
— was engaged to plan his garden, which ran to the water- 

* The *' Frenchman's Garden," a fashionable recreation spot for 
early New Yorkers, is now included in the present ♦' Macpelah Ceme- 
tery." 

14 



PROSPECT HALL 



front. He must have succeeded admirably, for memories 
of the rare flowers in grotesquely shaped beds, and es- 
pecially one long avenue of imported plum-trees, still 
linger in the minds of a few old Jersey citizens. It is 
said to have also contained the first of the Lombardy 
poplar-trees which were planted along the city's early 
streets. 

Colonel Varick and his wife lived very quietly 
during most of their long residence in their new home. 
The coldest winter months they usually spent in New 
York. Sometimes in the summer they gave garden- 
parties to their city friends, who crossed the river in 
periaguas manned by negro ferry-men. Among the 
families known to have visited them were the Glovers, 
Waddington's, and Bensons, — all old Broadway neigh- 
bors. Occasionally they gave coaching-parties to the 
many quaint Dutch villages at little distances from 
Paulus Hook. These gay journeys were often made 
in Washington's great plum-colored coach embellished 
with silver, which his excellency had presented to 
Colonel Varick when leaving the city of New York for 
the new seat of government at Philadelphia. Some 
interesting mementos of this old coach are in Jersey 
City at the present day in the shape of mirror-frames 
fashioned from its mahogany side panels, and silver tea- 
spoons made from the Washington arms and initials. 

Generally speaking, there was little gayety at the Hall. 
After Mrs. Varick 's death, which occurred before 1 820, 
the colonel became more or less of a recluse, and the 
great door above the almost circular stoop was rarely 
opened except for old friends. In these latter years 

IS 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

there was no return to New York in the winter and the 
colonel and his small family of three black servants 
stoutly faced the terrors of those bleak seasons of long 
ago, when the few houses of the small city were at the 
entire mercy of the cold Atlantic winds, and the floating 
ice in the Hudson made communication with the oppo- 
site shore impossible. The two or three octogenarians 
who dimly remember Colonel Varick at this period of 
his life tell of him driving about the city streets or roads 
in an antique chaise drawn by an old white horse which 
seemed its match in age. He was never alone, but was 
always accompanied by " King Varick," his faithful 
body-servant, who had been with him through the Revolu- 
tion. This pompous individual, who rightly earned his 
name, used to proudly boast that he belonged to the 
quality. He earned the open contempt of the early 
citizens by his haughty demeanor, and in the morning, 
after visiting the wharf for his marketing, would often 
be seen flying homeward pursued by a motley crew of 
fish-women and urchins whom he had incensed with 
his remarks. 

Colonel Varick, accustomed as he was to the best 
society of his time, must have been disquieted by the 
class of people which came to reside permanently in the 
city for which he had predicted so brilliant a future. 
Before the thirties few good substantial families made 
their appearance, most of the inhabitants being of 
so very low an order that missionaries came over from 
New York, notably Dr. Barry, the early pastor of St. 
Matthew's church, to try and work reforms and abolish 
the bull-baiting and cock-fights which disgraced the 

i6 



PROSPECT HALL 



place. It was then considered unsafe for an unarmed 
man to be abroad at night, and a woman on foot after 
dark lost her reputation. A watch guarded the streets 
after the vesper hour, caUing out at intervals the time of 
night and all's well. 

The city of Jersey which Colonel Varick knew was 
very different from the large and constantly growing 
Jersey City of to-day. Grand Street, the principal 
thoroughfare, was a wide, shady avenue with great old 
trees on either side, whose interlacing branches nearly 
shut out the sky. Through it the heavy English mail- 
coaches, the successors of the old wooden flying ma- 
chines, came from the North, South, and West. Their 
destination, the Lyons Hotel, later called the Hudson 
House, was quite a famous stopping-place for travellers, 
and afforded accommodation equal to any in the city of 
New York. Under the management of Joseph and 
William Lyons, some years before the establishment of 
Judge Lynch's Thatched Cottage Garden, it had a nicely 
laid out park before it with many little rustic summer- 
houses on the water-front. There guests tired after long 
and tedious stage-coach journeys could rest and enjoy 
the invigorating sea-breezes and the view of the beautiful 
shore line opposite. 

It was from this old-time hostelry, a small portion of 
which is still standing, that the Marquis de Lafayette 
set out on his farewell tour of New Jersey. In its parlor, 
called the " Long Room," one hazy morning in Sep- 
tember of the year 1824, he was introduced by Governor 
Williamson to the chief officers and leading citizens of 
the State. There was one among the many comprising 

17 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

the distinguished gathering who needed no introduction, 
and that was Colonel Varick, whom the aged marquis 
joyfully embraced as an old friend, and presented with a 
souvenir from La Grange, in the shape of a valuable piece 
of Sevres. The reception committee, following Colonel 
Varick's suggestion, had General Washington's coach 
brought out from the Varick stables to bear the old hero 
to Newark, and drawn by six white horses, with its cream 
brocade interior carefully dusted and its panels newly 
varnished, it is said to have made a most impressive 
appearance. General Lafayette left the city of Jersey 
with a promise to pay Colonel Varick a visit on his 
return journey, which promise he kept before bidding 
good-by to America. 

An old resident who lived when a boy directly back 
of the Varick coach-house on Morris Street, then better 
known as " Dishwater Lane," remembers seeing the 
general and his son George Washington Lafayette 
walking through the Varick Garden when on their way 
to pay this memorable visit. He distinctly recollects 
the personal appearance of the aged Frenchman and his 
youthful son, and dwells on the curious crowd which 
followed them, eager to pay homage to the hero of the 
hour. 

During the last years of Colonel Varick's life he was 
visited at Prospect Hall by many old friends, notably 
Josiah Hornblower, the inventor of the steam engine, 
who is said to have often stopped at the Lyons Hotel, 
and Baron Steuben, who dwelt with fond recollection on 
the scenes of half a century before, and talked over 
Hackensack, where the baron once purchased an estate 

i8 



PROSPECT HALL 



from the Zabriske family near Colonel Varick's birthplace. 
Upon his death, which occurred at Prospect Hall, July 
30, 1831, his funeral service at the house was attended by 
one of the largest gatherings of distinguished Americans 
the city has ever held. He was buried from the Dutch 
Church on Nassau Street, New York City. Owing to 
the honor of his having been for over thirty years the 
president of the Society of the Cincinnati, that organi- 
zation wore mourning-badges for a period of thirty days. 
His heir and nephew, who inherited his Jersey City 
property, was noted for his many vagaries, such as dump- 
ing his uncle's library of law books into the water at 
the foot of Bay Street, selling Washington's coach for 
junk to a blacksmith on Greene Street, much to the 
indignation of his neighbors, and burning a large collec- 
tion of valuable papers and letters. He resided in the old 
hall for many years, and after his decease it passed out 
of the family's possession to become a boarding-house 
and share the fate of many noble mansions of the period. 



19 



THE WHITE HOUSE 

JERSEY CITY 

WHERE AARON BURR IS SUPPOSED 
TO HAVE ARRANGED HIS MEMOIRS 



|T is but a short walk from Pros- 
pect Hall to the northwest corner 
of Sussex and Hudson Streets, 
where stood almost intact until a 
few years ago a three-story brick 
house partly surrounded by the 
ghostly remains of an old garden 
in the shape of three dead trees, 
which with the aid of a venerable high brick wall 
helped to shut the house away from the chance passer-by. 
It is not very likely that it ever attracted any one's 
curiosity, although there was something of an air of 
quiet mystery about it, and few knew or cared that it 
was once the shelter of the famous Aaron Burr. 

To Jersey City, in the summer of 1830, according to 
Burr's biographers, who only mention the fact briefly, 
the tired practitioner, weary of the din and heat of New 
York and a multitude of troubles, came to enjoy the 
pleasures of a comparatively retired situation. This house 
was then locally called the " White House," for its white 
color, which made it almost as much of a water-front 
landmark as the Edge windmill, loved by so many by- 




THE WHITE HOUSE 



gone generations of sailors entering the harbor. It must 
have afforded him a refuge very much to his taste, for he 
remained there for the best part of the following three 
years. 

The White House was then owned by Colonel Varick, 
and rented by him to a Mrs. Hedden, who at his solicita- 
tion gave lodging to his old Revolutionary comrade. 
Mrs. Hedden was a gentlewoman in reduced circum- 
stances, and it is a most curious coincidence that once 
before in her life she had been the housekeeper of another 
famous and much maligned man, Thomas Paine, then 
living in the little house on Columbia Street, where he 
died.* 

The dwelling was very near the park of the Lyons 
Hotel, and had a fine situation. From its front win- 
dows a view of the panorama of passing merchantmen, 
frigates, and sailing craft was ever before the eye ; and 
on fair days the inmates only needed to gaze from 
them to learn the hour from St. Paul's church clock, 
that antique mediator of the affairs of men, which was 
consulted alike by the merchant prince and the poorest 
clerk in his counting-house, the gay Broadway gallant 
and the beautiful belle of " North River Society ;" in 
fact, all the world of old New York. Hudson Street 
was then a leafy thoroughfare like Grand Street, and 
there on sunny afternoons a stately figure in an old 
Continental blue coat could be seen walking to and fro, 
taking his constitutional, seemingly lost in thought. An 
interested audience of children, quaint little figures in 
nankeen suits and cotton print gowns, curiously watched 
* Columbia Street, New York City, is now Grove Street. 

21 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

the old gentleman, and always stopped their play when 
he came out of the Hedden garden by the front wicket 
gate. 

In 1830 the city of Jersey, or Paulus Hook, as most 
of its residents still continued to call it, was experiencing 
its first real and long-expected boom, owing to the many 
improvements taking place under the plans of the " Jer- 
sey Associates." Towards the close of that year the 
citizens were priding themselves on the establishment of 
a post-office, as all their letters had formerly been taken 
to New York or Newark, and also the opening of a 
shore route for stage-coaches to Paterson. It then re- 
ceived a great stimulus from an influx of good families, 
which before that time had held aloof from the place. 
Cadwallader D. Golden,* a descendant of a famous 
Knickerbocker family, and, like Colonel Varick, a former 
mayor of New York City, left his Kinderhook summer 
villa for a house on Greene Street. He was interested in 
the construction of the Morris Canal, and that is the 
reason given for his having brought his family away from 
their long-established home. The Seeman brothers, 

* Cadwallader D. Colden in early life formed an intimacy with Robert 
Fulton which grew into an affection almost fraternal. Before he came 
to reside in the city of Jersey he is said to have frequently crossed the 
river, neglecting his extensive law practice, to spend hours with him at 
the Fulton factory on Morgan Street, where the celebrated " Clermont" 
was built. 

Colden was related to a large number of the most prominent New 
York and New Jersey families, and many of them found their way to his 
Greene Street residence to visit him. He was very fond of society and 
the theatre, and his portrait was in the painting of the interior of the 
Park Theatre done by John Searlefor William Bayard, Esq., in 1822. 



THE WHITE HOUSE 



sons of another well-known New York family, also 
arrived about this time. The wedding of one of these 
brothers to a young lady of Morris Street is still remem- 
bered. Barrels of wood sprinkled with oil burned on 
top of all the high sand-hills along the present Mont- 
gomery Street in honor of the celebration, and so much 
merriment did the wedding occasion that those who did 
not succeed in obtaining entrance to the rather small 
house danced in the street rather than give up their share 
of the fun. Liberal refreshments were passed to them 
through the windows. Then there were the newly 
arrived Schuyler family from Belleville, the Kissams and 
Townsends from New York, as well as the Deys, Wards, 
Dodds, and a few others of note. 

Very little is known of Aaron Burr's life in the primi- 
tive city. A few old residents who gazed upon him in 
their childhood remember little details about him. One 
tells of a black body-servant called " Kester" who waited 
on him, and another states that he arranged his memoirs 
in the White House. This seems to be corroborated by 
the fact that Mrs. Hedden used to drive away those 
same little children who watched Burr on his promenades 
when they raised their shrill childish voices to too high 
a pitch by her garden wall. While there Burr mingled 
freely with the best people, although he was generally 
ostracised in New York. As his character has been 
much maligned, it is only fair to him to state that he 
won the respect and undying regard of his landlady, who 
vigorously defended him to any of the neighborhood 
who dared asperse his name in her presence. Dur- 
ing the last year of his stay he began his courtship of 

23 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

Madame Jumel, who had previously played such an im- 
portant part in his life and that of his rival in her affec- 
tions, Alexander Hamilton. Burr has been much de- 
famed for his treatment of the noted old French beauty ; 
and although his sins were many, something of the 
best side of his nature, which acrimony and an almost 
world-wide unpopularity have so deadened, is shown in 
the fact that she always spoke well of him in her last 
years. Although it is not generally known, shortly be- 
fore her death she offered her magnificent home, still 
standing at Washington Heights, New York, to a son 
of Alexander Hamilton's, to make some amends for her 
husband's unfortunate injury to that family. 

In the several biographies of Aaron Burr there is but 
one mention of his life in Jersey City, and that is in the 
following interesting anecdote given in the memoirs 
which were partly arranged by himself and finished by 
J. Parton. It reads : 

*' A little adventure which he had in one of these last years will serve 
to show how completely he retained the youthful spring of his spirits and 
muscles when old men generally are willing prisoners of the arm-chair 
and chimney-corner. He was still living at Jersey City when Fanny 
Kemble and her father played their first engagement in New York. 
They created, as many will remember, a 'sensation,' and the news- 
papers teemed with articles laudatory to their acting. Burr, who took 
a lively interest in all that was passing, went to see them perform in the 
play of the Hunchback, accompanied by a young gentleman, a student 
at law, to whom I am indebted for the story. At that period the ferry- 
boats stopped running soon after dark, and Burr engaged some boatmen 
to be in waiting at the dock to row them back to Jersey after the play 
was over.* 



* The Jersey City ferry-boats did not run after dark until 1834. 

24 



THE WHITE HOUSE 



<'The theatre (the Park Theatre) was densely crowded. It was 
whispered about that Aaron Burr was present, and he was the target of 
a thousand eagerly curious eyes, . . . Meanwhile the weather had 
changed, and by the time they reached their boat an exceedingly violent 
storm of wind and rain was raging, and it was very dark. The waves 
dashed against the wharf in a manner that was not at all inviting to the 
younger of the two adventurers, who advised Burr not to cross. 

" ' Why!' exclaimed the old gentleman, as he sprang lightly into the 
boat, * you are not afraid of a little salt water, are you ? This is the 
fun of the thing. The adventure is the best of all.' 

" His companion embarked, and they pushed off. The waves broke 
over the boat and drenched them both to the skin in the first five minutes. 
On they went, against wind, waves, and tide, and after an hour's hard 
rowing. Burr all the while in hilarious spirits, they reached the shore. 
Such a tough, merry, indomitable old man was Aaron Burr on the verge 
of fourscore !" 

A few years after this adventure, and some time after 
Burr had closed his eyes on the world in the old Rich- 
mond House * at Mersereau's Ferry, now Port Richmond, 
Mrs. Holden gave up her home in Jersey City, and it 
passed into the hands of Charles Durrant, who, tradition 
says, was the first man to ascend in a balloon in New 
Jersey. 

The White House was destroyed a few years ago by 
a drug manufacturer, and a frame structure now stands 
on the site of the old garden. Along the Sussex Street 
side a portion of the high wall still remains. No longer 

* The Richmond House was the homestead of Judge David Mersereau 
until 1820. It was erected shortly after the Revolution, on the site of a 
British fort, and is still standing in Port Richmond to-day. The old 
knocker that Aaron Burr used embellishes the great hall door, and the 
chamber where he died has been little changed. 

25 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



giant trees guard it from the garish sunlight, and its time- 
stained bricks gaze almost reproachfully at the passer-by. 
Perhaps it knows that behind it once stood a shelter of 
Aaron Burr that history has been content to let pass 
away unnoticed and forgotten. 



26 



THE VAN VORST 
MANSION 



JERSEY CITY 



WHOSE KITCHEN STEP WAS "A 
CORNER-STONE OF LIBERTY" 




S Jersey City grew and spread its 
arms out into the salty meadows, 
a Dr. Barrow, of New York City, 
purchased a tract of land on its 
outskirts, where he erected two 
large Ionic houses, one for him- 
self, and the other, so tradition 
says, for Cornelius Van Vorst, 
who became the owner soon after its completion. In 
style of architecture they were very imposing, and 
although their environment has greatly changed since 
their erection in the late thirties, one at least, the Van 
Vorst Mansion, which has been occupied for nearly half 
a century by the well-known Edge family, still retains 
an air of distinction. 

In the days of the " courtly Cornelius" this old man- 
sion enjoyed great local fame for the generous hospitality 
which greeted those fortunate ones who crossed its 
portals. Its beautiful garden, now only a memory, was 
a source of pride to the Jerseyites of yesterday. There, 

27 



f m 




k. i mi 



THE VAN VORST MANSION 



strips of forest, crowned by the hills of Bergen, the 
family flourished in something of the style of that 
vanished race known as the old Southern planters. It 
is said of Cornelius Van Vorst that he was very fond 
of the people of the South ; and although it is a strange 
fact, it is true, nevertheless, that many residents below 
the Mason and Dixon line found their way to Jersey City 
both before and after the Civil War. Among the most 
prominent were the Bacots, of South Carolina, one of 
whom married into another branch of the Van Vorst 
family, and the Greenes, of Virginia, who brought quite 
a retinue of " niggers" with them. One old-time Ken- 
tuckian, who was beautiful and distinguished enough 
to be a rival of Sally V^ard, " the queen of the South" 
in her own city, remembers distinctly the appearance of 
the Van Vorst Mansion and its large garden in the year 
1 850, as viewed from a window of one of the old omni- 
buses, then the popular mode of conveyance in the city. 
She tells of later visiting its curiosity, the kitchen step, 
which used to attract so many people to the Van Vorst 
garden gate, where, sad to relate, most of them were 
refused admission by the gardener. 

Very little has been written of this famous stone, 
though it was the pedestal of the Bowling Green lead 
equestrian statue of King George III., which " Tory pride 
and folly" raised in the year 1770. The New Tork 
Journal, of May 31 of that year, mentions the fact 
briefly that " the ship ' Britannia' has arrived with statues 
of his Majesty and Mr. Pitt, now Earl of Chatham." 
A itv/ months later the first statue was erected at the 
foot of Broadway, on Bowling Green, but the aristocratic 

29 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

features of his Majesty, under their covering of gold-leaf, 
did not give much pleasure to the patriotic portion of 
the city's inhabitants. His countenance, which they at 
first thought " simpering and idiotic," began to look 
tyrannical under the glow of independence, and in the 
summer of 1776, the opening of the Revolution, the 
" Sons of Freedom," unable longer to endure its gilded 
glory, assembled a band of patriotic citizens and hacked 
it to pieces with clubs and hatchets. General Washing- 
ton greatly disapproved of this riotous melee, and 
directed in his general orders that such affairs^" shall be 
avoided by the soldiery and left to be executed by proper 
authority." 

Lead was very scarce in that first year of the war, and 
all the portions of his Royal Highness's noble effigy 
were collected and transported to Litchfield, Connecticut, 
where the ladies of the town, assisted by Colonel Weg- 
glesworth's regiment, converted them into bullets. The 
soldiers that assisted on this occasion are open to the 
imputation of laziness, for, according to Governor Wal- 
cott's unique list of the number made, " forty-two 
thousand" are credited to the ladies, and three hundred 
to the regiment. 

Where the base of the statue, a stone of Portland 
marble about five and a half feet long and four inches 
thick, then disappeared to is not known. A few years later 
it found its way to Paulus Hook as the gravestone of 
Major John Smith, of the British army, who was buried 
near the site of the old St. Matthew's, on Sussex Street, 
the first English church of the city of Jersey. When 
this street was levelled by the Jersey Associates in 1804, 

30 



THE VAN VORST MANSION 

the gravestone was upturned by some workmen, who 
sold it to the father of Cornelius Van Vorst. He is said 
to have used it as a kitchen step for the old Van Vorst 
Mansion on the water-front. At his death it passed into 
the possession of his son, who appreciated its interest by 
making it one of the attractions of his garden, so noted 
in the by-gone annals of old Jersey City. Shortly be- 
fore Cornelius Van Vorst sold his Jersey City property to 
the Edge family, he received an offer of a large sum of 
money for his kitchen step from a descendant of Major 
Smith, whose grave it had marked for a few peaceful 
years. The offer was declined, as he preferred to keep in 
America his " corner-stone of liberty," as he was wont 
to call it. On his removal from his mansion he had 
had it dug out of the ground and sent to the New York 
Historical Society, in whose rooms all that remains of 
the gilded statue of George III. can be viewed to-day 
by the public. It still bears the marks of his Majesty's 
steed and the epitaph of Major Smith, which is as fol- 
lows: 

*< In the memory of Major John Smith, 

of the XLII., or Royal Highland Regiment, 

who died 25 July, 1768, 

in the 48th year of his age 

This stone is erected 

By the brave officers of that Regiment. 

His bravery, generosity, and humanity during an 

honorable service of 29 years 

endeared him to the soldiers, to his acquaintances, and 

Friends." 

This is, indeed, a noble chronicle to mark the headstone 
of any brave soldier, and reading it we cannot help 

31 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

thinking kindly of the redcoat who once slept under the 
shadow of England's most cordially hated king. 

Among the traditions of the Van Vorst Mansion, there 
is one repeated, without much foundation, that Henry 
Clay once stopped there. Henry Clay might have visited 
in Jersey City for a short time when on his way to New 
York, as there were several among the city's Southern 
colony whom he numbered among his friends ; but they 
themselves surely would have known of it. The old 
Kentuckian previously mentioned became well ac- 
quainted with him in the days before the war, when the 
South's most distinguished son was a frequent guest of 
the Gault House in its golden-time under Major Throck- 
morton's regime^ and he tells delightful stories of him 
standing in the Gault House hall at dinner-hour and 
whispering to a merry audience the social status of the 
ladies as they descended the stairs, learned by the color 
of the stockings which showed above their satin-slippered 
feet ; and again of the kisses he demanded from every 
maiden and matron of his near acquaintance when he 
returned to the hotel after a fortnight's absence at Ash- 
land ; but she has no recollection that he ever came to 
Jersey City, and she surely would have known and 
treasured the remembrance. 

The Edge family, who succeeded the Van Vorst's, are 
descended from the owners of the oft-written-of and 
pictured Edge windmill, * a quaint landmark of the early 

* The Edge windmill was erected by Isaac Edge in i 806. Accord- 
ing to family tradition it was sent in portions from Derbyshire, England, 
by his father, as a present in appreciation of his son' s success in the New 
World. Miss M. Louise Edge has in her possession one of the old 

32 



THE VAN VORST MANSION 



city, destroyed in 1839 to make room for the New Jersey 
Railroad tracks. The interior as well as the exterior of 
their home has an air of stateliness which is rivalled by 
few houses in New Jersey, and the many antiques and 
historical souvenirs it contains give it some degree of 
the fame it once had when its now destroyed garden 
possessed a " corner-stone of liberty." 

ledgers used by Isaac Edge. The accounts were kept in English currency 
until 18 16, and many of the entries are very interesting. During the 
war of I 8 1 2 flour was sold at the mill for eighteen dollars per barrel, 
and in New York City bread brought as high as three shillings a loaf. 



33 



THE PRIOR HOUSE 



JERSEY CITY 



WHERE "LIGHT-HORSE HARRY" AND 
HIS TROOP STOPPED FOR REFRESHMENT 
BEFORE THE BATTLE OF PAULUS HOOK 




UT on the Wayne Street marshes, 
a quarter of a mile from the Van 
Vorst Mansion, there stood until 
a few years ago an " unhonored 
and unsung" Dutch dwelling 
which played an important part 
in the history of the Revolution. 
Just above it, on the highest of 
the Bergen hills, General Washington often spent hours 
gazing through his spy-glass at the movements of the 
shipping in New York harbor when the British were in 
possession of that city, and he, as well as many other 
prominent American generals, occupied it as a temporary 
head-quarters during the different periods of the war. 

The house, as well as the mill which stood beside it 
on Bergen Creek, was erected in the year 1 760 by Jacob 
Prior, a resident of Bergen, who ground all the corn of 
the locality, and at flood-tide floated it on his scows to 
New York to be sold in the markets. It is not known 
whether he was a patriot or a loyalist. Unfortunately, 
many of the inhabitants of the Jersey frontier were apt 

34 



THE PRIOR HOUSE 



to change their allegiance as occasion demanded. His 
dwelling was of rock cut from the primitive Bergen 
quarry and stones found In the vicinity. It was two 
stories and a half high, and had a thatched roof We 
know that the fireplaces were embellished with delft 
Scripture tiles, and the second story, where the sleep- 
ing apartments were, was reached by a primitive oaken 
ladder, for many of the well-worn tiles and the old lad- 
der itself were in the collection of historical souvenirs 
formed by the late John F. Mills, of New York. A 
gun made in the reign of Queen Anne, and bearmg the 
name of Prior on a silver plate, was found under one 
of the boards of the first story floor when the house 
was being dismantled. How It came there Is a mys- 
tery It is now owned by a resident of Jersey City 
Heights, who prizes It as a link to the Bergen village of 
that early period. 

From the beginning of the war until our army's re- 
treat to the Delaware, General Mercer, the veteran of 
Du Quesne, who fell covered with glory at Princeton, 
and General Greene, his successor in command of the 
Jersey shore, and the commander-in-chief of the army, 
often shared the miller's hospitality when in the vicinity. 
In 1779 Lord Stirling established his head-quarters 
there for a short while, and in the gray dawn of 
August 19, a memorable summer's day of that year. 
Major Lee, the famous " Light-Horse Harry," stopped 
there with his tired troop of men for a few minutes 
before his brilliant capture of Paulus Hook, over 
which Congress waxed so jubilant, and of which 
Alexander Hamilton wrote in no extravagant terms 

35 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

as " one of the most daring and insolent assaults to be 
found in the records of chivalry," 

British commanders, too, frequently stopped there 
when it was not in the possession of the Americans ; and 
the poor miller and his wife could not have ground their 
flour with much pleasure, owing to the thought that 
some foraging expedition might be nearing their dwell- 
ing to steal the fruit of their labor before it could be 
safely secreted. 

After the Revolution the " mill house" became a great 
winter-time rendezvous for the lads and lassies of Bergen 
Town, who came to skate on the frozen mill-stream. 
About the wide fireplace in the living-room the Mercelis 
family, relations of Jacob Prior, and then owners of the 
mill, passed many a jug of hot milk and many a 
delft plate piled high with " kockjes" or jumbles to 
companies of merry guests. 

The boys of the thinly settled Paulus Hook also 
made many excursions there in both winter and summer. 
In the latter season the luscious apples in the orchard of 
the adjoining farm proved a great attraction. This farm 
was then owned by Aaron Vanderbilt, a first cousin of 
the father of William H. Vanderbilt, "Old Commo- 
dore Vanderbilt," who founded the world-renowned 
Vanderbilt fortune, and who was then running his 
new steamboat "Bellona" from New York to Bruns- 
wick ; where connecting post-chaises took passengers 
to Trenton and Philadelphia.* 

* This advertisement appeared in the New York papers of 1 8 1 9 : 
"The Vice-President's steamboat Nautilus will leave New York 
every day (Sundays excepted) from Whitehall Wharf, at eleven o'clock 

36 



THE PRIOR HOUSE 



Aaron Vanderbilt is said to have had a very irascible 
temper, aggravated no doubt by the frequent robberies of 
his fine " Baldwins" and " Monmouth Reds," and many 
were the wild chases he gave the urchins of his day, 
which, tradition almost laughingly says, resulted in his 
catching " neerie a one." Every fall-time after futile 
attempts at punishment he vowed vengeance on the boys 
when he caught them skating there the next winter; but 
when the winter came he had always fortunately for- 
gotten about his past injuries, and allowed them to skate 
in peace. 

In 1 837, when the cut was made for the Pennsylvania 
Railroad, of which Commodore Vanderbilt's steamboat 
" Bellona" and connecting post-chaises were the fore- 
runners, the Bergen Creek, which supplied the inmates 
of the mill with a means of living, was filled in, and they 
sold the Prior property to the Kingsford family, the first 
makers of Kingsford starch. But the filling in of the 
creek did not seriously affect the skating, for the low 
meadows were still there to be flooded and frozen over in 
the winter-time, and, as the little city of Jersey grew, 
they were frequented by the young people. All the best 
element of the city skated there in the thirties and 
forties, even to the young ladies of Madame Parabeau's 
Select School, which then occupied the Lyceum Building, 
afterwards tenanted by " Hasbrouck's Institute." 

A.M. From her the passengers will be received without delay into the 
superior fast-sailing steamboat Bellona, Capt. Vanderbilt, for New 
Brunswick, from thence in Post chaises to Trenton, where they lodge, and 
arrive next morning at ten o'clock in Philadelphia, with the commodious 
and fast sailing steamboat, Philadelphia, Capt. Jenkins." 

37 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

One of the young ladies, who climbed the heights of 
Parnassus as well as the heights of Bergen, wrote in a 
farewell to Jersey, published about this time, a stanza on 
the meadow skating-pond, which began : 

** No more shall we skate on the beautiful lake. 

O'er which Washington's banners once floated afar ; 
No more shall we loiter, and then homeward take 
Our way 'neath the jewel-like first gleaming star." 

The calling of the flooded Jersey meadows a lake is 
rather a bold stretch of the imagination, but the poetic 
license of the time gave a very wide latitude to all senti- 
mental writers, and the young lady in question wanted 
to do honor to the town whose " sweet vesper bells" 
and " fair groves" she was on the verge of leaving for- 
ever. 

The mill itself was destroyed in 1 838, but the dwelling 
which had sheltered so many American and British 
officers, notably the dark-faced young Lee, " the pet of 
the army," on the dawn of his great military success, 
stood until the year 1880, when Benjamin Mills, then its 
owner, began the improvement of the section of the 
city included in the Mills map. 



38 



CASTLE POINT 



HOBOKEN 



WHERE COLONEL JOHN STEVENS PLANNED 
"HOBUCK, THE BEAUTIFUL," THE PLEAS- 
URE RESORT OF EARLY NEW YORK 




In the highest eminence of " Point 
Castile," whose "greene and white 
chfFes" were supposed to be "cop- 
per or silver mynes" by the fol- 
lowers of Henry Hudson, on his 
memorable voyage up the river 
which bears his name. Colonel 
John Stevens, the famous in- 
ventor, built a handsome mansion soon after his purchase 
of Hobuck Island, in 1 784, and called it the Castle. By 
many of his generation John Stevens was looked upon 
as a mild madman, so far ahead was he of his age, and 
his purchase of such a large area of land as Hobuck 
Island created a sensation in the society of the times. 
Hobuck Island, or Hoboken Island, formed the largest 
part of the confiscated Bayard estate, and was much 
sought after when it was noised about that it was to be 
put upon the market. That noble gentleman. Baron 
Steuben, set his heart on obtaining it for the services he 
had rendered the government during the Revolution, and 
wrote to Governor Livingston for right of pre-emption ; 

39 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

but Colonel Stevens was ahead of him, and became the 
owner of the whole property in March, 1 783, for the sum 
of eighteen thousand three hundred and sixty pounds. 

The Stevens residence, mentioned by newspapers of the 
day as " Stevens Villa," was one of the most noted 
American homes of the last century, frequented as it was 
by the wealth and fashion of New York City, and indeed 
of the whole country. Mrs. John Stevens, nee Rachel 
Cox, the first lady of the Castle, was a daughter of the 
charming Mrs. John Cox, of " Bloomsbury Court," near 
Trenton, whose family of beautiful girls made a series of 
the most brilliant matches recorded in the annals of old 
New Jersey and Philadelphia society. The lovely Coxes, 
as they were sometimes called, were noted for their 
vivacity and high spirits, and after reading their letters, 
many of which have been published in historical works, 
we can readily believe it. It was Sarah Cox, * a younger 
sister of Mrs. Stevens, who wrote to a friend before going 
to a Washington Birthnight ball, that she would take two 
pairs of shoes, for, she says, " I danced one pair nearly 
out at the last assembly, and I am sure if I could do 
that when it had nothing to do with the President, what 
shall I do when I have his presence to inspire me ?" 

While on a visit to his future wife's home in Southern 
Jersey, Colonel Stevens's attention is said to have been 
first attracted to steamboat navigation, which came so 
near giving him a greater fame than Robert Fulton. 
Driving along the Delaware, near Burlington, in 1787, 
he saw John Fitch's boat pass up the river against the 

* Sarah Cox became the wife of Dr. John Redman Coxe, of Philadel- 
phia. 

40 



CASTLE POINT 



tide. His interest was so excited that he whipped up his 
horse and followed the boat in his chaise to its landing, 
where he closely examined the engines and the mechan- 
ism of the pushing paddles. After years of labor in his 
workshop at Hoboken, he constructed a small open boat 
worked by steam, far in advance of Fitch's idea. It was 
such a decided success that he was encouraged to go on 
and build the " Phoenix," a large boat after his own plan 
and model. She was completed but a few days after the 
world renowned " Clermont," designed by Fulton. 

Of Colonel Stevens's first steamboat an interesting 
description has come down to us from the pen of the 
late Frederick De Peyster, of New York. He wrote : 

** In the month of May, i 804, accompanied by a friend, I went to 
walk in the Battery. As we entered the gate from Broadway we saw 
what in those days was considered a crowd running towards the river. 
On inquiry, we were informed that 'Jack Stevens' (John Cox Stevens), 
son of Colonel John Stevens, was going over to Hoboken in a queer 
sort of boat. On reaching the bulkhead by which the Battery was then 
bounded, we saw lying against it a vessel about the size of a Whitehall 
row-boat, in which was a small engine, but there was no visible means 
of propulsion. The vessel was speedily under way, my late, much 
valued friend. Commodore Stevens, acting as coxswain, and, I presume, 
the smutty-looking person who filled the duties of the engineer, fireman, 
and crew was his more practical brother, Robert L. Stevens." 

Although Colonel Stevens's inventions occupied nearly 
all his time at this period, he still found leisure to devote 
to the improvement of his large estate, and in this he is 
said to have been greatly helped by the taste and good 
judgment of his wife. Their castle of a simple colonial 
style of architecture contained over twenty rooms, and 

41 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

it was Colonel Stevens's boast that each of its windows 
afforded a prospect of surpassing beauty. Both the New 
Jersey and New York shore lines above the harbor pre- 
sented a very rural appearance in those days. Back of 
the slim line of wharves were low houses and church 
spires, and stretches of green fields and undulating mea- 
dow-lands rolled away into a gradually rising and wilder 
landscape. Mrs. John Adams had a few years before this 
period written that the country about her home, in what 
is now Varick Street, between Charlton and Vandam 
Streets, New York City, could be compared to hills and 
vales of lovely Devonshire, and the views from the higher 
eminence of Castle Point must have been superb. 

In 1 804, following in the lead of " The Jersey Asso- 
ciates," the owners of near-by Paulus Hook, Colonel 
Stevens mapped out a part of his land and launched 
the enterprise under the name of " The New City of 
Hoboken." Lots were offered at public auction at the 
Tontine Coffee-House, in the city of New York, and 
general interest was aroused in a spot which subsequently 
became the most famous pleasure ground in the United 
States, and the delight of the poet, the artist, the actor, 
and the dreamer of old New York. 

So much was written about " Hoboken, the Beautiful" 
in the first half of the last century that it became almost 
world renowned. In those summers of its popularity the 
gentleman and the toiler crossed over the Hudson's 
sparkling waters in the comfortable boat " Fairy Queen," 
from Canal Street, to enjoy the Hoboken scenery and the 
then delightful walks and forest glades cooled by ocean 
breezes. 

42 






m-M:^^: 




CASTLE POINT 



Amusements and refreshments of almost endless variety- 
were at the call of every visitor. There was the wonder- 
ful circular railway called the " Aerial Ways," an im- 
provement, originated by Colonel Stevens, over the 
" Montagnes Russes" in the gardens of Beaujon and 
Tivoli, France. A visitor wrote that it was pleasantly 
situated under a clump of tall forest trees. " There," he 
said, " you might observe a gay young gallant handing 
to seat some timid blushing miss and gently folding in 
the stray portions of her airy drapery, while he plants 
himself by her side ; and away they wheel round and 
round, until the fair one gently whispers 'enough.' They 
now descend and retire beneath the surrounding foliage, 
to whisper (all very sweet no doubt) of bright days to 
come, while their envied seat is again wheeling in rapid 
revolution another fond and fluttering pair." 

Then there was " the green" in front of the old " 76 
House," a building which had been a granary in the time 
of the Bayards. There the mountebanks lured the 
passers-by to their gayly colored booths, and one could 
view the wax figures from Paris, and a camera obscura. 
From " the green" one started on the river walk, which 
led past the gardens of Castle Point and the Castle itself 
Wier and Smillie and many other artists have left us 
pictures of it. Engravings are still to be found in print- 
shops, although the beauties of Hoboken are forgotten. 
If the departing stranger desired a souvenir of the 
place, he could obtain it at the china shop on Wash- 
ington Street, where the sum of ten cents would pur- 
chase a Clew's Staffordshire plate as blue as lapis-lazuli, 
and embellished with a fine view of the Castle. Many 

43 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

found their way there, for the mansion of the owner of 
Hoboken was considered a handsome piece of archi- 
tecture, and there are enough " Castle Point plates" in 
existence to warrant the belief that they were very 
popular. 

In those bright days, when the Castle was in the hey- 
day of its glory and Hoboken a place of poetic beauty, 
the lovely sisters of Mrs. Stevens, then matrons with 
families of their own, often came to visit her. We 
cannot help wishing they had left us some letters de- 
scribing the gay doings at the Castle, as their early letters 
are so full of interest. Susan, the merry girl who wrote 
of going prepared to Washington's Birthnight ball with 
two pairs of slippers, could have amusingly written of 
the great hoax of the famous baloon ascension, which 
through judicious advertising drew crowds to witness the 
ascension of a " lady," who proved to be a much enraged 
tabby-cat. She could have also ably told of a great 
Fourth of July celebration, when hundreds of sky- 
rockets and other fireworks were set off in the garden, 
and of the dance which followed at the Castle, the New 
York guests coming across the water in barges decorated 
with lanterns, like their ancestors used to go to the 
pleasure gardens of Old England half a century before. 

Hoboken as a pleasure resort, and the early Castle 
itself, are now but memories. The present Castle was 
erected about 1845", and is a familiar landmark to the mil- 
lions who cross the New York and Jersey City ferries to 
the railroad termini. Rising out of a grove of old trees, it 
is a most imposing building, and it is pleasing to think 
that it is always to be owned by a Stevens and can 

44 



CASTLE POINT 



come to a serene old age, smiling on generation after 
generation. Its interior is very elaborate, containing a 
tapestry chamber and several rooms in early English 
style. It has always been the abode of gracious hospi- 
tality, and many distinguished people have been enter- 
tained there. The late Mrs. Martha Bayard Stevens 
dearly loved its many treasures and was never happier 
than when followed by old Peter, an aged Stevens slave, 
who died recently, she led the privileged guest through 
the elegant rooms, showing her famous old silver, 
the Martha Washington relics, and the collections of 
waistcoats, laces, and the ecclesiastical embroideries. 
The Stevens home to-day does not miss the wide strip 
of pebbly beach, now profaned by huge piers and ware- 
houses, the immortal river walk, which has disappeared, 
where old New York came to promenade and recruit its 
wasted energy, and the forgotten green where the weary 
rested and sipped their sangaree punch and strong waters. 
These all belong to another period, but it can ever look 
proudly on the great institute which the wealth given by 
Hoboken helped the family to establish, almost on the 
spot where Colonel John Stevens, the planner of the 
forgotten " Hoboken, the Beautiful" had his workshop 
and conducted his mechanical experiments. 



45 



ASTOR VILLA 

HOBOKEN 




WHERE JOHN JACOB ASTOR THE FIRST ENTER- 
TAINED THE LITERATI OF THE COUNTRY 



CCORDING to the New York 
City directories, 1828 was the 
year that John Jacob Astor, the 
richest American of his day, 
became a resident -of Hoboken. 
Previous to that time, during 
the erection of the Astor Villa, 
still standing in a rather dilapi- 
dated condition at the corner of Washington and Second 
Streets, he occasionally stopped at the famous, boarding- 
house of the Misses Van Buskirk, on the water-front, 
which is said to have obtained a finer patronage than any 
of the other hostelries of this old-time resort. The " old 
maids Van Buskirk," as the irreverent called them, in their 
black silk gowns and white mull caps, doing the honors 
of their parlors, were well-remembered figures by many 
of the last generation of Hoboken frequenters, now passed 
away. They were ideal boarding-house mistresses of 
the old school, when boarding-house keeping was the 
one remunerative recourse for reduced gentlewomen ; and 
the pride they took in the fare they gave their patrons, 
the trimness of their garden, and the skill they exhibited 

46 



i 



I 



ASTOR VILLA 



in preserving fruits and making pastries, gave them high 
recommendation in the eyes of all lovers of comfort and 
good living. 

The situation of the Astor Villa was very fine. It 
was partly surrounded by a large garden, filled by the 
millionaire with curious foliage, shrubs, and flowers, 
brought to him from abroad as presents by the captains 
of his fleet of merchantmen. From its front windows 
an unobstructed view of the " 76 House" and " the 
green" could be obtained, and there the old gentle- 
man would sometimes resort of an afternoon to enjoy 
the festive scene and the constantly changing parade 
along the river-walk. He is remembered as mingling 
freely with the forgotten throng of pleasure-seekers. 
Often he would pause in his rambles to acknowledge 
the obsequious greeting of one of his army of humble 
servitors ; sometimes he stopped to converse with one 
of his friends, and again he would journey the whole 
length of the river-walk lost in thought and scowling 
at every passer-by. 

One of his favorite resting-spots was a bench by a 
group of currant bushes at the side of the " 76 House." 
There, fanned by the sea breezes, he frequently sipped 
his favorite beverages and shut his eyes to enjoy the 
pleasant pastime of day-dreaming. The soft shadows 
would play on his wrinkled face, subduing and tranquil- 
lizing the hard features, and the world would pass by 
and whisper, " There sits the great Astor dozing !" 

Madame Jumel, a noted figure in early New York, 
when a very old woman, used to tell with great glee a 
story of how she refused to return one of Astor's bows 

47 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

when she met him one summer's day on the Hoboken 
green. " You would not imagine, my dear," she used to 
say to the one who is responsible for the anecdote, " that 
I snubbed the great Astor, but I did ; and there was 
many a home in New York in those days to which all 
his money would not have admitted him." But most 
likely Astor cared very little for the snubs of a few 
aristocratic Gothamites of that day, for his own world 
of commerce and finance bowed and cringed to him, 
and the care and multiplication of his fortune was his 
one grand passion. 

Comparatively little is known of Astor's life in Ho- 
boken, although few private citizens have had more 
written about them, both true and untrue, than he has had. 
There is a tradition that his motive in coming there was 
to obtain a legal residence in New Jersey. This perhaps 
is true, but he must have found it very agreeable, for he 
occupied his handsome brick-and-wood villa for the best 
part of the succeeding three years, until his departure 
upon a European trip. It must often have occurred to 
the Croesus of his day, as he sat playing checkers under 
the shade of the large chestnut-tree in his garden, that 
he had been wonderfully successful in the checker game 
of life, from the time he opened a toy-store in a shanty 
on Pearl Street, throughout his career, until he became 
the possessor of millions. 

Fitz-Greene Halleck, the brilliant poet and wit, of 
whom Astor was fond enough to leave him a remem- 
brance in his will, spent much of his time at the villa at 
this period, although he did not enter his employment 
as a clerk until some years later. 



ASTOR VILLA 



There, for all we know, on the Villa's porch, with the 
shore line of New York before him, he may have com- 
posed that beautiful description of that city's harbor 
in " Fanny," which begins : 

" Sparkling in golden light his own romantic bay. 

Tall spire and glittering roof and battlement. 
And white sails o'er the calm blue waters bent. 
Green isle and circling shore are blended there 
In wild beauty. When life is old 
And many a scene forgot, the heart will hold 
Its memory of this." 

One standing by the Hoboken water-front to-day and 
gazing at the great metropolis cannot help feeling some- 
thing of the charm of this early picture, which is indeed 
a painting in words ! 

Washington Irving and Martin Van Buren when 
in New York City often crossed the Stevens Ferry 
to visit him. Hoboken was a town which pleased them 
both, for they were very fond of the old Dutch 
settlements on the Jersey shore, and it was from 
the Van Home family, who lived in the " House of 
the Four Chimneys," still standing in Communipaw, 
that Irving obtained much of his matter on early 
Dutch customs for "A Knickerbocker's History of 
New York." Some writers have even gone so far as to 
state that the book itself was written in the homestead, 
but a careful perusal of Irving's letters shows this to be 
a fiction. 

The millionaire and his author friend, Washington 
Irving, used to be constantly seen driving or walking 
4 49 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

together in the vicinity of Hoboken, They were very 
popular in a score of nearby old Dutch households, and 
it is a noteworthy fact that they distributed many bright 
silver dollar pieces to proud mothers displaying infants 
bearing their appellations. 

Hoboken in John Jacob Astor's time was a great 
resort for the theatrical world, and to its sylvan solitudes 
many jaded Thespians came to recuperate before the 
evening performance. In the shady " Turtle Grove," 
made memorable by the feasts of the " Turtle Club," 
Lover's walk, and the wood of fir-trees by Sibyl's cave, 
the chance frequenter was always sure to run across some 
actor deep in his play-book, and speaking unconsciously 
a telling passage, with only the fleeting birds and 
whispering leaves to voice approval. 

Many a tragedy queen and king (for it was the trage- 
dies which held the boards the longest at the theatres 
in those days) Astor asked over to his villa, for those 
whose fathers knew him intimately say he was passion- 
ately fond of the society of the inhabitants of the mimic 
world, and the happiest moments of his life were passed 
in the pit of the theatre. He and his friend John K. 
Beekman were the joint proprietors of the old Park 
Theatre at one time, and were often referred to by the 
wits as the " Theatre Jacks." 

Few people passing the villa to-day, although un- 
changed in structure, with the exception of an additional 
story and modern roof, would ever dream that it was 
once the home of a man so noted as John Jacob Astor 
the first, but it is nevertheless true, and perhaps it was his 
best-loved residence, though he built much grander 

50 



ASTOR VILLA 



houses in after years. When he first came to Hoboken 
he had just retired in a slight measure from the strain of 
money-getting to enjoy his fortune, and this summer 
resort was, as a forgotten poet once wrote of it, — 

** A place of rest with swaying trees, 
A lovely garden by the sea." 



51 



HIGHWOOD 

WEEHAWKEN 




WHERE "THE GREAT LITTLE DICKENS" 
WAS FEASTED BY JAMES GORE KING 

TURING the summer of 1832, the 
cholera year, when scared New 
Yorkers were dosing themselves 
with Dr. De Kay's famous pre- 
scription of port-wine and Dr. 
Rhinelander's equally famous one 
of brandy as preventives, James 
Gore King, the noted New York 
banker, and seventeenth president of the Chamber of 
Commerce, removed his family to his then only partly 
completed country-seat on the woody crest of the Pali- 
sades at Weehawken. 

The house, a severely plain two-storied structure, 
though large and roomy, was surrounded by one hundred 
and eighty acres of land lying between the Bull's Ferry 
Road and the river, and the adjoining Stevens estate on 
the south. After several years spent in beautifying a 
naturally fine situation, the place became one of the 
most noted residences in America, and was always visited 
by distinguished foreigners when stopping in New York. 
James Gore King, was the third son of Rufus King, 
the eminent statesman. He attended school in London 

52 



HIGHWOOD 



and Paris, and was graduated from Harvard in 1810. 
In early life he married Sally Gracie, a New York belle, 
and daughter of the distinguished Archibald Gracie. 
His brother, Charles King, who became president of 
Columbia College, also married into the same family, 
uniting his fortunes with those of another daughter, Eliza 
Gracie. At one time in his career he virtually controlled 
the operations of Wall Street, and earned for himself the 
soubriquet of " The Almighty of Wall Street." 

Instead of improving his large area of land at a great 
expenditure at one time, Mr. King went about it judi- 
ciously, and continued adorning and enlarging his gardens 
almost up to the time of his death in 1851. His 
wise plan seems to have attracted considerable notice. 
In an old number of the Merchant's Magazine and Com- 
mercial Review^ Freeman Hunt wrote that Lord Ash- 
burton, when visiting the United States, was greatly 
charmed with Highwood and the " sensible manner" in 
which Mr. King had laid out his grounds. 

Many New Yorkers whose names are rocks in its 
social history were frequenters of Mr. King's New 
Jersey home in the first half of the last century. His 
most intimate friend for a long period of years was 
Daniel Webster, who could often be found at High- 
wood, when away from his New England home. 
Among the tinselled names associated with the mansion 
is that of Madame Brugiere, — a forgotten queen of 
New York society, who was a welcome guest of the 
Kings. At her pretentious residence. No. 30 Broad- 
way, on the Bowling Green, the first fancy dress ball 
was given in the United States. The invitations to 

53 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

this affair were printed on strongly scented paper, and, as a 
wit has said, " the town was in a flutter of perfume for a 
week." Her lovely daughters, Eloise, Nathalie, and 
Juliet, were poetically called " the Graces of Broadway." 
Among the most frequent guests could be mentioned 
the name of Nicholas Biddle, " The King of Philadel- 
phia." He often brought his family from the Quaker 
City to sojourn with his old friend. 

In the spring of 1842, when Mr. and Mrs. Charles 
Dickens were the social lions of New York City, they 
several times crossed the river to be entertained at High- 
wood. It has been said that the old merchant prince, 
who was a great admirer of the English author, was one 
of the planners of the famous " Boz Ball," which was 
given at that place of memories, the Park Theatre, on 
St. Valentine's night of the same year. Everybody who 
was anybody in the " upper ten thousand" attended, and 
the tableaux vivants which appeared on the stage from 
time to time during the evening were fine enough to 
furnish food for conversation many months afterwards. 
Subscribers to the ball who were prevented from attend- 
ing in some instances sold their tickets for sums ranging 
from twenty-five to fifty dollars. 

Reading over a portion of a list of the fashionable 
world who were there, one truly realizes that the me- 
tropolis is a city of kaleidoscopic changes, for few of the 
oftenest-printed New York names of to-day appear. 

An old blue-blooded dame, of ancient lineage, who 
used to reside in one of the grand old mansions facing 
St. John's Park, wrote not many years ago in some 
reminiscences on old New York, that all the old families 

54 



HIGHWOOD 



were dead, and their descendants crushed on the rocks 
of adversity. The many forgotten ones who shone at 
the " Boz Ball" proves her lament to have been far from 
whimsically pessimistic* 

Although Dickens wrote that the Americans were by 
nature "frank, brave, cordial, hospitable, and affectionate," 
and he had many proofs of all these qualities while in 
their midst, his mind was not above petty ridicule. 
Time has killed the sting of his famous description of 
an American reception, given to the world in " Martin 
Chuzzlewit," and in it we can see to-day only a very 
mirthful picture of the " Boz Ball," and the entertain- 
ments arranged for him which succeeded it. 

Many of the celebrities who visited our country in 
the early days of the nineteenth century have been criti- 
cised for their lack of good breeding. Frances Anne 
Kemble, better known as Fanny Kemble, was received 
at all the best houses in New York City during her 
triumphant engagement at the Park Theatre in 1832. 
Three years after that date the publication of her 
Journal created a veritable sensation when her former 
friends learned her true opinion of them and read her 
strictures on their dress, habits, and manners. 

Another woman not as noted, but guilty of greater 
vituperation, was the garrulous Mrs. TroUope. In her 

* The Schuylers, Aymars, Colts, Leadbeaters, Randolphs, Lydigs, 
Lords, Hamiltons, Hunters, Bancrofts, and Ericssons were among the 
aristocratic families who resided on St. John's Park. They all possessed 
keys to its gates, from which the public were rigorously excluded. 
During the first year of its existence it was cultivated and tended by the 
negro servants of several prominent families of Trinity Parish. 

55 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

" Domestic Life of the Americans," written from observa- 
tions in the newly-settled western country, she charac- 
terized America with a caustic goose-quill. 

Philip Hone, the distinguished New York City mayor, 
whose diary is as well known to all true Knickerbockers 
as that of the celebrated Pepys, gives an interesting 
glimpse of Highwood in an account of a farewell break- 
fast given there to Mr. and Mrs. Dickens on June 8, 
1 842, before their departure for England. He says : 

" We had a breakfast worthy of the entertainers and the entertained ; 
and such strawberries and cream ! . . . The house and the grounds and 
the view and the libraries and the conservatories were all more beautiful 
than I have ever seen them." 

On the King estate was a wild ravine where a stream 
known by the name " Awiehawken" dashed over a part 
of the famous duel ground,* which has been called the 
most interesting spot in the county of Hudson." There 
handsome young Philip Hamilton in the dawn of his 
manhood fell by the hand of George Eacker three years 
before his father met a like fate from Aaron Burr. His 
second on that occasion was his cousin Philip Church, 
who had recently returned from England with his father, 
where he had been studying at Eton. These two grand- 

* Captain Deas owned the property on which the duel ground was 
situated. It is said of him that he always kept some member of his 
household watching from the Deas homestead for the appearance of 
possible duelists, and when any were sighted he himself would rush to 
the duel ground, and, according to Mr. Winfield, in his ** History of 
Hudson County," by his suaviter in mo do or for titer in re, often 
healed wounded honor and established peace. 

56 



HIGHWOOD 



sons of General Philip Schuyler are said to have been 
strikingly alike in personal appearance, and their remark- 
able attachment, which led them to be seen constantly 
together, is one of the pleasantest memories in the 
annals of the society of the period. There, too, came 
many a hasty man of honor who fared better than the 
unfortunate Hamiltons, — De Witt Clinton, Richard 
Riker, whom the wits in "The Croakers" accused of 
shooting his own toes. Commodore Perry, Captain Heath, 
and many others of a list too long to enumerate. 

Above the duel ground, nestling among a fine grove 
of ancient oak-trees, was a little tavern, or way-house, 
called the " Boliver Inn," which should go down in 
history with the spot it gazed upon. The passing 
farmer or market woman always stopped at its bar for a 
" boliver," or large double schooner of cider, sold for 
the small sum of a penny, and many times in the early 
dawn when the rising sun was tinting the cliffs of Wee- 
hawken and gilding the oak-trees an aggrieved gentle- 
man and his second would appear at the door and rouse a 
sleepy landlady to get them a breakfast. 

This is not the famous inn, or Mountain Pavilion, as 
it was called, at the top of the Hackensack Road, where 
Daniel Webster sometimes boarded in the summer-time, 
" to live in heaven," as he used to declare. That was 
quite a fashionable hostelry in its day, and greatly fre- 
quented by the wealthy residents of New York, who 
came there to enjoy the air and the view. 

Much has been written about the glorious view, which 
led James Gore King and many other New Yorkers to 
purchase summer homes in Weehawken. Verses are to 

57 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



be found in many old papers and periodicals of the 
period. A wit in the New York Mirror of July 7, 1832, 
wrote the following squib on it, which is interesting 
enough to be preserved: 

" Let Willis tell, in glittering prose. 
Of Paris and its tempting shows ; 
Let Irving, while his fancy glows. 

Praise Spain, renowned — romantic ! 
Let Cooper write, until it palls. 
Of Venice, and her marble walls. 
Her dungeons, bridges, and canals. 
Enough to make one frantic ! 

" Let voyageurs Mac-Adamize, 
With books, the Alps that climb the skies. 
And ne'er forget, in any wise, 

Geneva's lake and city ; 
And poor old Rome — the proud, the great. 
Fallen — fallen from her high estate. 
No cockney sees, but he must prate 
About her — what a pity ! 

*' Of travellers there is no lack, 
God knows — each one of them a hack. 
Who ride to write, and then go back 

And publish a long story 
Chiefly about themselves ; but each 
Or in dispraise or praise, with breach 
Of truth on either side, will preach 
About some place's glory. 

*' For me — who never saw the sun 
His course o'er other regions run. 
Than those whose franchise well was won 
By blood of patriot martyrs — 
58 



HIGHWOOD 



Fair fertile France may smile in vain ; 
Nor will I seek thy ruins, Spain ; 
Albion, thy freedom I disdain. 
With all thy monarch's charters. 

" Better I love the river's side. 
Where Hudson's sounding waters glide. 
And with their full majestic tide 

To the great sea keep flowing : 
Weehawk, I loved thy frowning height. 
Since first I saw, with fond delight. 
The wave beneath thee rushing bright. 
And the new Rome still growing." 

After Alexander Hamilton's death a monument to 
his memory was erected on the King estate by the St. 
Andrews Society of the State of New York, which 
stood until a short while ago. In the past it was a spot 
of great interest to the morbidly sentimental and ro- 
mantic. Young maidens and old maidens came oyer 
from pleasure excursions at Hoboken and the " Elysian 
Fields" to view it, and old Federalists who had known 
Hamilton often spent hours by its side in mournful 
contemplation. A quaint story is told of two old 
gentlemen, who are remembered as making frequent 
journeys there. One was an American and the other a 
Frenchman, and when not talking of Hamilton they 
always seemed to be wrangling over the respective merits 
of Washington and Napoleon. " Great man, Wash- 
ington, Pierre," one would say ; and the other would 
always answer, "Yea, great Washington; but, ah I my 
Napoleon I"— and so year after year they fought a senile 
battle of long standing neither ever won. Highwood 

59 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

was destroyed by fire several years ago, and the beau- 
tiful estate of the distinguished King family would 
be only a memory but for the name of the " great little 
Dickens," who was feasted there. 



60 



THE SIP MANOR 

JERSEY CITY HEIGHTS 



WHERE LORD CORNWALLIS 
STOPPED WHEN IN BERGEN 




)N the heart of Bergen, the oldest 
European settlement in New 
Jersey, and now a part of Jersey 
City, is the ancient Sip home- 
stead, which has weathered the 
storms of two and a half cen- 
turies. It was erected in the 

^ _ ^ year 1666, by Claas Ariance Sip, 

^JXltilTT^I^^ in the possession of one of his male 
descendants, having been held by the family with a large 
grant of surrounding land under Dutch, English, and 

American rule. 

Gazing at it to-day, although a city has grown up 
around it and modern houses built on the site of its 
garden almost shut out the sunlight from its genial 
door-way, one with any imagination is sure to obtam 
some slight impression of the past. This " town of the 
hills," as its inhabitants called it, was then the home of 
a hospitable, kindly race of Dutchmen, living in the 
midst of plenty in the simple manner of their Holland 

ancestors. 

During the Revolutionary War Bergen was frequently 

61 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

visited by the foraging parties in search of provisions.* 
Marshy Bergen Neck was the scene of General Wayne's 
unfortunate expedition to capture a herd of cattle be- 
longing to the British, upon which disaster the gallant 
and equally witty Major Andre wrote his satirical poem 
entitled, " The Cow Chase," whose opening verses ridi- 
culing Wayne — a tanner by trade — were on the lips of 
every Tory wag who saw Remington's Gazette of De- 
cember 1 3, 1 780. They read : 

* Provisions were not the only things sought by the Bergen foraging 
parties. To aid the sufferings of the American troops in the winter of 
1777, Governor Livingston made the following suggestion in an issue 
of the New Jersey Gazette for December of that year. ** I am 
afraid that while we are employed in furnishing our battalions with 
clothing, we forget the county of Bergen, which alone is sufficient 
amply to provide them with winter waistcoats and breeches from the 
redundance and superfluity of certain woollen habits, which are at 
present applied to no kind of use whatsoever. It is well known that 
the rural ladies in that part of New Jersey pride themselves in an 
incredible number of petticoats, which, like house furniture, are dis- 
played by way of ostentation for many years before they are decreed to 
invest the bodies of the fair proprietors. Till that period they are never 
worn, but neatly piled up on each side of an immense escritoire, the 
top of which is decorated with a most capacious brass-clasped Bible, 
seldom read. What I would, therefore, humbly propose to our su- 
periors is to make prize of these future female habiliments and, after 
proper transformation, immediately apply them to screen from the 
inclemencies of the weather those gallant males who are now fight- 
ing for the liberties of their country. And to clear this measure 
from every imputation of injustice, I have only to observe that the 
generahty of the women in that county, having for above a century 
worn the breeches, it is highly reasonable that the men should now, 
and especially upon so important an occasion, make booty of the 
petticoats. ' ' 

62 



THE SIP MANOR 



" To drive the kine one summer morn. 
The tanner took his way. 
The calf shall rue that is unborn 
The jumbling of that day. 

** And Wayne descending steers shall know. 
And tauntingly deride. 
And call to mind in ev'ry low 
The tanning of his hide. 

*♦ Yet Bergen cows shall ruminate. 
Unconscious in the stall. 
What mighty means were used to get 
And lose them after all." 

In 1776, almost four years before this event, the 
august Lord Cornwallis and a troop of redcoats passed 
through Bergen and supped and spent a night under the 
low sloping roof of the old Sip Manor, waited on, no 
doubt, during their stay by the sweet-faced daughters 
of the house of Sip, for there are traditions in many 
Bergen Neck families that the marauding British soldiers 
when visiting farm-houses generally would not permit 
the black household slaves to wait upon them. Corn- 
wallis probably had some difficulty in making his un- 
willing hosts understand him, for at the time of the 
Revolution few of the inhabitants of Bergen spoke 
English, and even as late as 1820 there were many who 
had not mastered the language. It is well they could 
not, for he is said to have been on the trail of General 
Washington, whom he did not succeed in capturing. 

Life in the old Sip home in this last century, although 
primitive, could not have failed to be happy. The soil 

63 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

was rich, crops were abundant, and there were many- 
guilders, rix dollars, and double and single stivers 
in the secret drawer of the carved wood " kos," or chest, 
containing the most treasured of the family possessions. 
Skating parties by daylight, or at night when the moon 
was high, husking bees, and the playing of old Holland 
games were the winter-time amusements of the young 
people. Occasionally in the spring and summer months 
the young men would row their sweethearts across the 
river to New York to view the "Stadt Huys," the "Vlye 
Market," and the " Common," where the great ladies pa- 
raded in silk and satin gowns made by the skilful New 
York " mantua-makers" and wonderful to the eyes of 
the simple Dutch maiden, who spun and dyed her 
" linsey-woolsey" petticoats by the home fireside. 

Very often, so quaint old records say, there were fights 
with the Paulus Hook ferry-keeper, who wished every 
one to patronize his flat-bottomed boat, called a "pirouge" 
or " periagua," and many a frail craft bearing its happy 
freight of young people, or some frugal vrouw taking 
her garden produce to sell to the tavern-keepers, was 
wished ill-luck on its perilous voyage. 

The good huysvrouws* first accomplishments were 
their skill in cookery and the rearing of their families in 
the way they should go. The groetmoeders, like their 
groetmoeders in Holland, took great delight in their 
flower-gardens, and Bergen was a land of sweetness in 
the summer-time. The Dutch garden of the eighteenth 
century in Bergen differed very little from its sister 
across the river. They both had the same plots of 
flowers in the shape of stars, crescents, and circles, 

64 



THE SIP MANOR 



bound by the shrub dear to the hearts of our ancestors, 
which an old writer has so aptly called "the gallant 
boxwood." The hausbloemen themselves were the 
same as those which grew in the neighboring English 
gardens. An old lady of Bergen, who used to work 
in her half-acre "sweet plot," sheltered by a great 
black silk calash to preserve her complexion from 
the bright sunlight of those mornings of yesterday, 
once compiled a list of the flowers which flourished in 
her mother's garden, and, besides the loved tulip, it con- 
tained ragged-robins, lady's-slippers, prince's-feather, Can- 
terbury-bells, love-in-the-mist, sweet-phoebus, mourning- 
brides, and many other of the quaintly named flowers of 
"merrie England" once to be found in any old-fashioned 
garden. 

The Sip garden was famous in the annals of old 
Bergen and contained all these beautiful and fragrant 
inmates, and many more besides. Governor Peter 
Stuyvesant is said to have admired its large variety of 
flowers when drinking spiced wine under the shade of 
of a willow within its borders. He was generally chary 
of his praise, and knew what a garden ought to be, as he 
kept many a score of negroes at work on his own fine 
gardens surrounding White Hall at the Battery and his 
manor on the Bouwerie. 

Many of the trees surrounding the Sip homestead had 
interesting histories. General Lafayette, when visiting 
Colonel Varick and making a tour of Bergen, once 
planted two elm-trees close to the house, and these stood 
until a few years ago, when they were cut down, owing 
to the annoying pests of small bugs which frequented 
5 65 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

them in the summer-time. The gnarled and aged willow 
under which Governor Stuyvesant sat was also destroyed 
when the site for the house close by was opened. It had 
a further history in the tale which has come down to us 
that Lord Cornwallis hanged three spies from its 
branches the moming he left Bergen after his stay with 
the Sip family. 

In later years Judge Peter Sip, the grandfather of 
the present owner, Mr. Richard G. Sip, often entertained 
Mayor Golden, of New York, under its melancholy 
foliage at a friendly game of chess or cards. 

One of the pleasantest customs of the Sip Manor and 
many of the homes of Bergen was the nightly gather- 
ing of the family to keep " schemeravard," or twilight. 
While the last light lingered in the sky, or perhaps 
by the glow of a bayberry candle, the old people and 
the young people would draw the black settle close to 
the fire and talk over the events of the day. 

In the summer-time they met under the sloping roof 
of the " back stoop," covered with the trumpet-flower 
and honeysuckle vines. It was then each told of joys 
and sorrows, and asked advice for the morrow. As the 
light faded, groetvader and groetmoder grew reminiscent 
of the land of dykes and windmills beyond the sea. 

We can picture them there that night after the scarlet 
line of Cornwallis's army had grown blurred and indis- 
tinct in the brown of the King's Highway. Are those 
tears in the eyes of Lysbet and Annetje as they whisper 
over the fate of the poor spies lying cold and stiff on 
pallets of dead leaves in the garden, and do they smile 
when they tell of the admiring looks the handsome 

66 



THE SIP MANOR 



young redcoats gave them ? We shall not know, for 
" schemeravard" is deepening, and the darkness will soon 
completely hide them. 

When we look again they have vanished, for they are 
only the ghosts of memories of those once fair Bergen 
maidens who are *' in den Hease outslopen," as the 
Bergenites used to say for those who sleep in God. 



^ 



APPLE-TREE HOUSE 

JERSEY CITY HEIGHTS 

WHERE LAFAYETTE AND WASHINGTON ATE 
UNDER THE SHADE OF AN APPLE-TREE 




BOUT a hundred yards away 
from the Sip Manor, and just off 
Bergen Square, on what is now 
known as Academy Street, is 
an imposing stone dweUing, 
covered with aged ivy vines. It 
used to be called, by the early 
residents of Bergen, Apple-tree 
House, owing to the fact that Generals Lafayette and 
Washington dined under the shade of a great old apple- 
tree in its orchard when planning the retreat through 
the Jerseys. 

The house was then owned by Hartman Van Wage- 
nen, a member of a prominent Bergen family, whose de- 
scendants retain it to-day. At the time of its erection, in 
the seventeenth century, it was one of the largest buildings 
in the village, and although slightly modernized in the 
first half of the nineteenth century, is still a fine specimen 
of an old Dutch homestead. General Washington often 
stopped in Bergen during the first year of the war. 
There is a tradition that he presented a lace handker- 
chief to a member of the Van Winkle family when 

68 



APPLE-TREE HOUSE 



visiting the Stuyvesant tavern, at the foot of Glenwood 
Avenue. This time-kissed dweUing to-day, peering from 
behind aged vines and gnarled shrubs, seems to call out 
to the passers-by, " Look at me, I am the last tragic bit 
of the Bergen of true Dutchmen." The Tuers and 
Dey houses are also said to have been visited by him, 
as well as the famous " Three Pigeons Inn," which the 
brave Sergeant Champe rode past on his wild-goose 
chase after the deserter Benedict Arnold. But there is 
abundant proof that Washington did stop with Lafayette 
at the Apple-tree House, and there are many mute relics 
in existence, cut from the wood of the tree which shel- 
tered them, that would tell us the story if they could. 

Nothing is known to-day of the manner Van 
Wagenen entertained his distinguished guests. Pre- 
sumably one of the dishes that his " black wenches" 
served them was the delicacy of oyster-crabs stewed in 
wine, a Bergen viand of which, according to an early 
resident of Paulus Hook, by the name of Granny Cutter, 
Washington was very fond. This quaint character, a 
market-gardener's daughter, who died many years ago, 
and is only dimly remembered by the oldest citizens, 
used to relate how, on the day of the Father of his 
Country's inauguration as first President of the United 
States, she spent the morning securing oyster-crabs, which 
were ordered for the great chiefs dinner. Many other 
interesting tales she told, which are still repeated, of the 
time she sold her cock-a-nee-nee, or taffy sticks, under 
the hazlenut-trees which grew on the site of the City 
Hall of New York. The spot was then a gathering- 
place for dealers of all kinds. Peddlers of knick-nacks, 

69 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

flower-women with stands of growing plants, and fruit- 
venders. Bananas were practically introduced to New 
Yorkers there, the fruit selling for one dollar a dozen. 

The Van Wagenen apple-tree obtained quite a senti- 
mental interest in the succeeding years. It was blown 
down and uprooted by the great gale of September 3, 
1821, which did much damage to the farms throughout 
the State People came from all over the surrounding 
country to obtain pieces of its wood, to be made into 
treasured souvenirs. Many trinkets were whittled out 
of its branches by the clever youths of Bergen, and 
numerous must have been the apple-tree presents ex- 
changed at the following Kerstija, or Christmas-time. ■ 

In 1824, when General Lafayette had arrived in 
America and was the hero of the hour, several of the 
public-spirited citizens decided to present him with a 
cane cut from the wood of the famous apple-tree, when 
he passed through Bergen on his Jersey tour. He 
reached the junction of the five roads about noon-time 
of the twenty-third of September of that year, followed 
by his suite and a cavalcade of prominent New Jersey 
officials. His coach, drawn by six white horses, was the 
famous vehicle presented by General Washington to 
Mayor Varick, and his approach was the signal for the loud 
cheering of a large majority of the inhabitants of Bergen, 
who had assembled to welcome him and see their cane 
presented by good Dominie Cornelison, the pastor of the 
old Bergen church. 

Wander back o'er the years with me and gaze on the 
forgotten company. The multitude of Dutch people in 
their primitive dress thronging the roadways and perched 

70 



APPLE-TREE HOUSE 



on farm wagons and the roof and balcony of the Half- 
Way House, where the sign of the White Swan swung 
on its rusty hinges ; the soldiers in their brilliant uniforms 
with brass buttons flashing when the sun finally burst 
through the dark clouds ; stately Governor Williamson 
on his large bay horse ; and then the grand old Lafay- 
ette, bowing right and left and gracefully acknowl- 
edging the salute of the humblest urchin there. Now 
Dominie Cornelison steps forward with the cane, which 
has been elegantly mounted with gold, and bears this 
inscription : " Shaded the hero and his friend Washing- 
ton in 1779; presented by the corporation of Bergen in 
1824," and a silence falls on the crowd as he begins the 
following address : 

*< General, — In behalf of my fellow-citizens I bid you a hearty and 
cordial welcome to the town of Bergen, a place through which you 
travelled during our Revolutionary struggles for liberty and independence. 
Associated with our illustrious Washington, your example inspired cour- 
age and patriotism in the heart of every true American. You, sir, left 
your abode of ease, affluence, and happiness, to endure the hardships 
and privations of the camp. To enumerate your martial deeds is at this 
time unnecessary, yet they awaken and call forth our warmest gratitude. 
As a tribute of esteem and veneration, permit me, sir, to ask the favor 
of your acceptance of this small token of respect, taken from an apple- 
tree under which you once dined and which once afforded you a shelter 
from the piercing rays of noonday ; and although it possesses no healing 
virtue, may it still be a support. And may you, sir, after ending a life 
of usefulness and piety, be admitted into the regions of everlasting joy 
and felicity." 

Draw nearer now, as the marquis is voicing his thanks 
in low and rather quavering tones, and all will want to 
remember hearing the great man speak, although a few 

71 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

present are not very familiar with any but their own 
Holland tongue. Very soon all will be over, and in the 
words of some faithful reporter on the Sentinel of 
Freedom^ " the cavalcade now resumes its march under 
the loud and hearty cheers of the inhabitants of the 
ancient village." 

Over the dusty road with its many bridges it slowly 
creeps through meadow and bogland filled with autumnal 
flowers and foliage, on to Newark, where, filling the 
common, a vast concourse is assembled, and gayly dressed 
girls stand by a decorated floral bower, ready to sing 
these verses, composed for the occasion by a local poet : 

'* Welcome! Freedom's favorite son. 
Welcome ! friend of Washington ; 
For though his sun in glory's set. 
His spirit welcomes Lafayette. 

** Welcome! Friend in adverse hours. 
Welcome! to fair Freedom's bower; 
Thy deeds her sons will ne'er forget. 
Ten millions welcome Lafayette." 

On Lafayette's return from his Jersey tour he is said 
to have visited Apple-tree House, and from the many 
trees in old Dutch gardens credited to his planting, he 
must have spent at least a day with different admirers in 
Bergen. 



72 



RETIREMENT HALL 

GREENVILLE 

WHERE PRINCE WILLIAM HENRY, THE SON 
OF GEORGE III., IS SAID TO HAVE DINED 

|N old Pamrapaugh, a scattered 
Dutch settlement frequently vis- 
ited by hunting-parties from New 
York City during the eighteenth 
century, a Captain Thomas 
Brown, who had won some dis- 
tinction in the French wars, 
built, in the year 1760, a large 
mansion, costing many thousand pounds, which was one 
of the finest dwellings in New Jersey. 

Tradition says Captain Brown was the son of English 
parents residing in Bergen County. While still a young 
man he married Anna Van Buskirk, a great heiress, who 
inherited from her parents, Lawrence and Feytie Van 
Buskirk, a large portion of a tract of land situated at 
old Minarchquay (commonly called Pamrapaugh), now 
Greenville, about three miles south of Jersey City, ex- 
tending from New York to Newark Bay. It was on 
the choicest portion of this land, some years after his 
wife's decease, that Captain Brown erected his great man- 
sion, which, with its immense rooms, wide double gal- 
leries, and profusion of English and French furniture, 

72> 




HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

silver plate, and other luxuries, became quite noted, 
notwithstanding a rather isolated situation. Travellers of 
distinction journeying between New York and Philadel- 
phia were generally entertained at its hospitable board, 
and in the spring and fall it was always the scene of 
extensive hospitality. 

There is a halo of uncanny mystery around the career 
of Captain Brown, for he was one of the principal slave- 
dealers of the New World. Shipload upon shipload of 
human freight are known to have been confined in the 
underground cellar of Retirement Hall, and many of 
the old manacles and chains were in place in its walls 
until a few years ago. Search among the records of 
colonial slave-dealers reveals very little about him. 
The one bright spot in his life, looking at us from 
this sombre page of history, is the marriage of 
his only daughter and heiress, in October, 1772, to 
Andrew Gautier, a member of a prominent New York 
family.* 

Oh, those picturesque early weddings of the long ago ! 
In this instance the bridegroom was seventeen, and the 
bride a year younger. A quaint pair they must have 
made : the youthful bridegroom in his white velvet suit, 
embroidered with gold, and white silk stockings, then 
the costume generally worn by the bridegrooms of the 
gentry, and the timid and shrinking bride just escaped 
from the nursery and the care of her black mammy, in 
the stiff brocade gown with wide panniers, and the 
high head-dress of the period. If we look back over 

* Andrew Gautier was then in his early teens, and had recently been 
a student at King's College. 

74 



RETIREMENT HALL 



that long vista of years we can perhaps obtain a gHmpse 
of the wedding-company leaving Old St. Paul's, then 
New St. Paul's on Broadway, where the dust of Cap- 
tain Brown is now resting in the vault of the Ten 
Eyck's. Many a good old Huguenot family, whose 
ancestors had walked the quaint and crooked streets of 
La Rochelle, was present, for the Gautiers had once 
been prominent members of L'Eglise du St. Esprit, the 
famous Huguenot Church on Pine Street, New York 
City. We can see members of the proud Le Roy 
family, whose descendants have held conspicuous social 
positions in New York for two centuries ; the Freneaus, 
De Lanceys, Allaires, and Pintards, all so closely allied 
with ties of blood and friendship ; the Vincents, Jays, 
Auboyneaus, Jouneaus, Neaus, Droilets^ and many 
other ghostly figures bearing prominent names, which 
the dust of years have hidden, in that forgotten com- 
pany. Ladies in wide silken beflowered gowns, and 
gentlemen in satin small clothes and beruffled coats, 
entering gilded or mahogany coaches for their ride to 
Whitehall, where Captain Brown's periaguas are in 
waiting to bear them across the bay to the feast pre- 
pared at Retirement Hall. 

In the immense kitchen, separated from the house 
proper by a distance of several feet, another feast is said 
to have been prepared at a later date for the gay little 
midshipman who afterwards became William IV., then 
in New York under Admiral Digby. 

Tradition says that it occurred one stormy evening. 
Several boats full of redcoats, one of them containing 
the young prince, having left the Black Horse or the 

75 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

Rose and Crown,* the famous Tory resorts on Staten 
Island, were driven by a squall over towards the Com- 
munipaw shore, and made for the little wharf near Re- 
tirement Hall, where they demanded refreshment. 

Prince William Henry, the third son of George III., 
was the hero of the hour among the British and Tories 
on his landing in New York in September, 1781. The 
arrival of a son of the sovereign gave them fresh hope 
of subduing the erring colonists. Fetes and dances 
marked his arrival in the city, the fairest belles taught 
him to skate on the Collect pond, and a writer of the 
time has pictured him followed every step he took by 
Tory entertainers and Hessians singing high Dutch 
tunes and dancing rigadoons. 

It is not known whether Captain Brown was at home 
to receive his unwelcome guests, but he must have 
groaned on hearing of the occurrence, for he was one of 
the few notable exceptions in Bergen County who had 
espoused the patriot side. Tales have been told that 
during the war many a fugitive from the British found 
shelter in his dark and mouldy slave cellars when hotly 
pursued, and that he frequently made contributions of 
money to the cause. 

Several years before peace was proclaimed Captain 
Brown was stricken with paralysis, and had to be helped 
about by a body-servant. Out on his great wide gal- 
leries he spent much of his time watching for the white 

* The Rose and Crown tavern, which stood at New Dorp, Staten 
Island, until the last decade, was for a time, in the summer of 1776, the 
head-quarters of no less a personage than General Howe. The Black 
Horse, which remains near by, sheltered his staff. 

76 



RETIREMENT HALL 



sails of the ships which never came, for his West Indian 
trade had been ruined by the hostihties with the mother- 
country. He died in 1782, as peace was returning to a 
devastated land. Five years later his little heiress, Mrs. 
Andrew Gautier, closed her eyes on the world that had 
beamed so benignly at her when she became a bride at 
sixteen. Retirement Hall was retained by members of 
the Gautier family until 1829, and then passed into other 
hands. * During the latter part of the past century it 
had rather an evil reputation, several of the families 
who had leases of it declaring that the figure of an 
old man always looking to sea constantly haunted 
its front galleries at midnight, and strange noises like 
groans and the clanking of chains often emanated from 
its cellars. Although modernized from time to time, 
it still retains much of its old-time aspect. It has been 
occupied for the past few years by the Greenville Yacht 
Club, but the owners, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Com- 
pany, are contemplating its removal. 

* The Gautier family in New York City were descended from the 
Gautiers of Saint Blancard, in the Province of Lanquedoc, France. 



n 



THE PARSONAGE 

NEWARK 

WHERE ALL NEWARK SOUGHT COMFORT DUR- 
ING THE DARK DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION 




;T the corner of Broad and Wil- 
liam Streets there formerly stood 
an old vine-covered building 
with massive walls and wide 
window-sills, which perhaps in 
its day was the best loved and 
most venerated residence in New 
Jersey. It is now but a fading 
memory to the oldest Newark residents, for it was de- 
stroyed in 1835, just one century after its erection. Few 
to-day remember the stories which cluster about it and 
form one of the most interesting portions of the history 
of the old borough. 

Into its wide old hall, which echoed to the tread of 
hundreds of famous people before and during the Revo- 
lution, a sad-faced divine in black velvet elegance, leading 
by the hand a laughing girl in wedding finery, came one 
bright morning in the long ago, when it was a new 
dwelling and its history a blank page. They were the 
Rev. Aaron Burr * and his lady, as we read of them in 

* President Burr, at the time of his marriage, was in his thirty-third 
year, and his bride had just reached nineteen. She was a New Eng- 

78 



THE PARSONAGE 



old records, and to this new home had come on their 
honeymoon. 

The Rev. Aaron Burr was at that time the president 
of the infant College of New Jersey. It had been re- 
cently removed to Newark from Elizabethtown. His 
young wife, Esther, fourteen years his junior, was the 
daughter of the noted Rev. Jonathan Edwards of Stock- 
bridge, Massachusetts, who subsequently, like his distin- 
guished son-in-law, became the head of New Jersey's 
seat of learning. Tradition asserts that the marriage 
created much excitement in the sparsely populated village 
of that day, and a faint echo of it has lived until the 
present century in a letter of one of the students of the 
college, who wrote home to his " mammy" that he could 
not tell " Mrs. Burr's qualities and properties, although 
he had heard she was a very valuable lady." 

In one of the second-story rooms of the old house 
this " valuable lady" became the mother of the famous 
Aaron Burr, and the happy woman holding him as an 
infant could never have dreamed of his meteoric career 
in which misfortune and a degree of greatness were so 
strangely mingled. The Burrs lived in the Parsonage 
until the removal of the College of New Jersey to 
Princetown, in 1756, and its next occupant was David 
Brainard, a younger brother of the famous missionary 
Brainard. He seems to have tarried in Newark only 
a short while. After him came the Rev. Alexander 

land beauty, and is said to have been singularly lovely in both mind 
and body. She died at the age of twenty-five, outliving her husband 
one year, and leaving two children, Sarah and Aaron, both born in 
Newark. 

79 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

Macwhorter, a young merry-eyed Scotchman, once a 
student in the college, and then fresh from the tutelage 
of the Rev. William Tennent,* the Monmouth divine 
who had become famous through his death-trance and 
journey to heaven, which he vowed had occurred when 
ill in New Brunswick. During the first years of Mac- 
whorter's pastorate, Newark and the adjoining Eliza- 
bethtown, from their nearness to New York City and 
the Staten Island shore, were the common grounds for 
foraging parties of both armies. The minister in those 
thrilling times was a much more important personage in 
the New Jersey communities than nowadays. As news- 
papers were scarce, and many of his parishioners had not 
enjoyed the advantages of the simple course of education 
then in vogue, he was generally looked to for news of 
the army. From his high pulpit on Sabbath morn- 
ings he cautioned and counselled about worldly as weil 
as spiritual matters, and during the week his house 
was generally overrun with his flock, ofttimes seek- 
ing advice on the most trivial of every-day affairs ; 
in fact, he was the good and benign ruler of the neigh- 
borhood. 

Many were the timorous ones who hastened to the 
Parsonage to be under the sheltering wing of Dominie 
Macwhorter's family when it was noised abroad that the 
British were approaching. Under their protection they 
felt as secure as they would have been behind the portals 

* While completing his studies at Freehold, under the guidance of 
the Rev. William Tennent, Alexander Macwhorter met his fate in the 
person of Mary Gumming, a daughter of a poor but highly respectable 
merchant of that town. 

80 



THE PARSONAGE 



of a secret closet, and there was a famous one in Newark 
in the old Wheeler Mansion, a portion of which is still 
standing on Mulberry Street. The dominie was seldom 
at home, for he was a chaplain in the army, and assisted 
at the council of war which decided on the memorable 
crossing of the Delaware. 

As early as 1775 he visited a district in North Caro- 
lina to win over the people in that part of the South 
unfriendly to the Revolution, and so persuasive was his 
eloquence that he made many converts. 

Newark, in the Revolutionary period, had few houses 
and inhabitants, yet it was already known as a beautiful 
and luxuriant country. In a letter written by Colonel 
Israel Shreve, a young officer then at Wyoming, to Miss 
Mima Baldwin, a daughter of one of its prominent 
families, he speaks of it as " a very pleasant and agree- 
able village, where they truly enjoy the innocent pleas- 
ures of true friends, whose company are more near and 
dear than all other." Another interesting epistle which 
has come down to us from a private, Caleb Miller, who 
wrote to his mother from Chatham, tells of a longing to 
hear the Newark church-bells, which, he says, " have a 
sweeter tone than any he has heard hereabouts," and 
hopes the day will soon come when " he can feel the 
green covering of his native village." We cannot help 
wishing that this young man of a religious and some- 
what sentimental turn of mind had left us some de- 
scription of the true Dominie Macwhorter and the 
Parsonage he knew. 

During the first part of the war Macwhorter was for 
a short time the chaplain of General Knox's army at 



81 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

White Plains. The jovial and good-natured Mrs. Knox, 
always becoming so devotedly attached to every one 
she admitted to her friendship, longed for his council and 
sympathy at a later period when at Pluckamin. It 
was there she lost her young daughter, Julia,* whom 
the elders of the Dutch Church refused a sepulture in 
their church-yard, considering the fact of the Knoxs 
being members of the Congregational Church of New 
England sufficient to warrant their un-Christian-like 
action. 

General Knox and many other famous commanders 
passed nights at the Parsonage when in the vicinity of 
Newark, and in the low dining-room, where Mrs. Burr 
used to listen to the laughter of the young Aaron, at a 
later date. General Washington and Governor Livingston, 
the " Don Quixote of the Jerseys," met to talk over affairs 
of state. 

From what can be learned of the Rev. Alexander 
Macwhorter's life during the war, his fortunes were at a 
pretty low ebb, but he obtained his reward after peace 
was proclaimed, and the great building which his parish- 
ioners erected for him on the " home lott" of Robert 
Treat, the chief founder of Newark, was one of the 
largest and most beautiful churches in New Jersey. A 
recent writer says of it : 

* The grave of Julia Knox is about twenty-five feet v^^est of the Re- 
formed Dutch Church in Pluckamin. A tombstone is still to be seen bear- 
ing the following almost illegible inscription : *• Under this stone are 
deposited the Remains of Julia Knox, an infant who died the second of 
July, 1779. She was the second daughter of Henry and Lucy Knox, 
of Boston, in New England." 

82 



THE PARSONAGE 



" It stands to-day a noble evidence of the Christian zeal of the good 
men and women who, nearly a century ago, built it ; and it is a grand 
and appropriately situated monument to the memory of those most 
worthy and estimable persons who rocked the community in its cradle."* 

The good dominie lovingly watched it every day dur- 
ing its erection, and even selected the trees in the New- 
ark woodland to be felled and used for the interior. 
After it was permanently opened for public worship 
in January, 1791, never was a parson so busy joining 
hands in marriage as this brave divine in the suc- 
ceeding months of spring ; and it has been written that 
he never could leave his home of an evening so many 
were the happy young couples who rode from distant 
farms on horseback to have him marry them. To give 
a list of the people united in the Parsonage afterwards 
becoming distinguished, one would need to recite a 
good portion of New Jersey's history. As the famous 
historian Mrs. Lamb once wrote of it, " In no other 
house in New Jersey were so many people made happy 
or miserable." 

* The Rev. Dr. Macwhorter's description of his church when first 
completed has come down to us. He said of it: " Its dimensions are 
one hundred feet in length, including the steeple, which projects eight 
feet. The steeple is two hundred and four feet high. Two tiers of 
windows, five in a tier, are on each side ; an elegant large Venetian win- 
dow is in the rear behind the pulpit, and the whole is furnished in the 
inside in the most handsome manner in the Doric order." 



83 



FRENCHMEN'S PLACE 

NEWARK 

WHERE THE GREAT STATESMAN TALLEYRAND 
ENJOYED THE DELIGHTS OF JERSEY'S GARDEN-SPOT 




LMOST across the way from the 
Parsonage was a long, two-storied 
dwelUng, shaded by several old 
trees, of which very little has 
been written, although for about 
six months it was the home of 
no less a personage than his 
Princely Highness the Bishop 
of Autun, better known in America as Monsieur de 
Talleyrand. 

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, destined to 
become one of the world's most renowned diplomatists, 
was at the time a member of the large fraternity of 
France's expatriates living in America. In February of 
the year 1 794, the passage of the Alien Bill forcing him 
to leave England, he sailed for New York City, where 
he engaged in a mercantile business for a short period. 
John Barker Church, Alexander Hamilton's brother-in- 
law, then a prominent figure in the London social world, 
furnished him with the money to reach our shores and 
keep him while here. At Down House, on the Thames 
near Windsor, and at the Churchs' London residence in 

84 



FRENCHMEN'S PLACE 



historic Sackville Street he had been a welcome guest, 
and was something of a Hon at the card-parties given by 
the fashionable Mrs. Church. It is related of him that 
he enjoyed sitting at a table where his slight deformity 
of a club-foot could not be noticed, and on such occa- 
sions his wit and repartee were always more brilliant. 

Talleyrand won the regard of the hospitable Churches, 
and when he left London the following letter, writ- 
ten by Mrs. Church, introducing him to her friends Mr. 
and Mrs. Breck of Philadelphia, reposed in his port- 
manteau : 

"London, Feb. 4, 1794. 

" An abscence of ten years has not impaired the memory of Mr. and 
Mrs. Breck' s civilities nor the hospitality with which they received me 
when a stranger at Boston, knowing them to be what I describe I request 
that Mess, de Tallyrand and de Beaumer may be of the number of those 
admitted to the pleasure of their acquaintance. Europe has seldom 
parted with persons of more information, and who go more inclined to 
appreciate the merits and manners of your countrymen. I am, there- 
fore, anxious that they should have admittance to your family. These 
gentlemen intend to reside in America till France is at peace, when they 
may be restored to that eminence from which the unfortunate events 
in that country have deprived them. They were members of the con- 
stituent assembly ; the advocates of Moderate Liberty, and friends of 
our suffering friend, Lafayette. 

<* Will you excuse my taking this liberty, but I really so well know 
the goodness of your heart that I fear an apology would displease you. 
Mr. Church unites in compliments with me. Your old friend and 
acquaintance. 

"Angelica Church. 

** Pray recall me to Mrs. Breck' s remembrance. I wish I could be 
useflil to her here and that she would command me. ' ' 

85 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

After giving up his business in New York City he 
proceeded to the capital, then the genial City of Brotherly 
Love, ever kind to foreigners, and established himself in 
Oellers's famous tavern on Chestnut Street, where he 
made himself known to the leading citizens, who lost 
no time in their haste to entertain so great a celebrity. 

William Cobbett wrote of him at that time as being 
on intimate terms with Thomas Jefferson, the head of the 
French faction, and all the Frenchmen in the city. He 
became somewhat of a meddler in our national affairs, 
and his liking for political controversy brought him only 
the poor reward of ostracization from the government 
circles. In the fall of that year he arrived in Newark, 
where he was destined to remain for some time. Who 
knows but that the peaceful town, bright with summer 
garniture, may have brought to the mind of the ci-devant 
bishop pictures of early days at St. Sulpice, or Rheims, 
and so lured him to stay awhile. 

The house which he there occupied was near the south- 
east corner of Broad and Fair Streets, and subsequently 
became known as the David Ailing house, where fine 
furniture was made, especially that " beautiful sofa and 
most elegant sideboard of an entirely new pattern," de- 
signed for Lafayette's rooms in the home of Judge Elisha 
Boudinot on the occasion of the old Revolutionary gen- 
eral's farewell visit to Newark. 

In the thirties, according to a local paper, it was a 
two-story-and-a-half brick structure, surrounded by a 
garden which extended to a small Revolutionary shanty 
on the corner, and a portion of it remained standing 
until quite recently. During the period Monsieur de 

86 



FRENCHMEN'S PLACE 



Talleyrand spent there it was kept by a French emigre, 
whose name is lost to posterity. All that is known 
of him being the fact that he boarded several of his 
exiled countrymen and that his house was designated by 
the townspeople as Frenchmen's Place. 

Newark in 1794, from the accounts which have come 
down to us, was a very different place from the little 
village of Revolutionary days, with its few primitive 
and scattered dwellings. It was the chief market cen- 
tre of the State, and was rapidly becoming noted for the 
number of wealthy and cultured families drawn there by 
a charmingly rural situation, coupled with many of the 
advantages of large towns and cities. Travellers who 
passed through it and recorded their experiences in dia- 
ries dwelt with rapture on its wide roads, its orchards and 
gardens, and, above all, the advanced state of its society. 

Among the families then most prominent were the 
Burnets, Ogdens, Plumes, Boudinots, Morrises, Law- 
rences, Ten Broecks, Brownes, Bruens, Huntingtons, 
Coes, and Johnsons. Captain Porter, the father of 
Admiral Porter, spent a summer about this time with 
the Gouverneur family at their homestead on the Passaic, 
and becoming so enamoured with the village, came there 
for several succeeding summers, braving the fat mos- 
quitoes, which Washington Irving wrote of so wittily,* 

* In ** Memorandums for a Tour to be entitled * The Stranger in 
New Jersey, or Cockney Travelling,' " included in the "Salmagundi 
Papers," Newark is mentioned as follows : 

" Newark — noted for its fine breed of fat mosquitoes — sting through 
the thickest boots — Archy GifFord and his man Caliban — jolly fat fellows 
— a knowing traveller always judges everything by the innkeepers and 

87 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

and later, Peter I. Van Berckel, Minister Plenipotentiary 
from the states of Holland, became one of its inhabi- 
tants. There were several distinguished English resi- 
dents, notably a youth visiting the Farren family, who 
is said to have been a near relative of the famous actress 
of that name, and Colonel Hawke, a descendant of Ad- 
miral Hawke. Francis Rabineau, a miniature-painter of 
some note, also resided there. Fox-hunts and dances 
were the principal amusements of the gentry ; and we 
must not forget theatricals, for several times the boys 
of the Academy, assisted by the young ladies of the 
town, essayed the roles of Mrs. Ichabod's comedies, which 
in the latter years of the eighteenth century won so much 
applause at the old Greenwich Street Theatre in New 
York City. 

One quaint custom, often bringing provincial France 
to the mind of Talleyrand and his fellow-boarders at 
Frenchmen's Place, was the keeping of a town shepherd, 
who could be seen almost any day with his many 
flocks of sheep and guardian dogs in Orange Grove, 
Lover's Walk, or on the common in the heart of the 
village. 

History has left us no record of what the brilliant 
grand seigneur thought of the fox-hunting Newarkers, 
but he must have been as well received there as in Phila- 
delphia, for George Washington wrote to the Marquis 

waiters — set down Newark people all fat as butter — learned disser- 
tation on Archy GifFord's green coat, with philosophical reasons why 
the Newarkites wear red worsted nightcaps, and turn their noses to the 
south when the wind blows — Newark Academy full of windows — sun- 
shine excellent to make little boys grow." 

88 



FRENCHMEN'S PLACE 



of Lansdowne, in the latter part of August of that year, 
" I hear that the general reception he has met with is such 
to compensate him, as far as the state of our society will 
permit, for what he has abandoned on quitting Europe." 
No doubt the dowagers and maids of Newark of that 
time were glad of Monsieur de Talleyrand's presence 
among them, for then, as now, a title carried a certain 
amount of lustre, and many a fair Jersey daughter could 
have sung with the country girl in a comic song of the 
time, called " The Marquis Ragadouz," — 

" Oh, mind your p's and mind your q's. 
Here comes the Marquis Ragadouz. 
Of all the dandies whom I know, 
I much prefer him for a beau." 

But whatever heart Monsieur de Talleyrand possessed 
was safe in France, and while the Newark citizens were 
paying court to him his mind was no doubt dreaming 
and planning the future coups of statesmanship which 
made him so famous in after years as the chief adviser 
of many a regime. 

While in Newark Monsieur de Talleyrand most likely 
prosecuted those studies of American institutions and com- 
merce which resulted in his widely read essay, " Une 
Memoire sur les Relations Commerciales des Etats Unis 
Vers, 1797," published in France when he was one of 
the shining lights of Madame de Stael's famous salon. 
It is said he invested some of his meagre wealth in a 
commercial enterprise when in America, by taking shares 
in a trading vessel's cargo going to the West Indies. It 
is to be hoped that the vessel was not the " Black Prince," 

89 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

fitted out by a Mr. Camp, a merchant of Newark, which 
sailed away about this time with so many Jersey fortunes 
to be swallowed up by the treacherous sea. 

Before Monsieur de Talleyrand bade good-by to 
Jersey's garden-spot, it is traditionally asserted that the 
picturesque dreamer and explorer Francois Auguste, Vis- 
count de Chateaubriand, came over from Philadelphia 
to see him, but it seems doubtful that a man of Talley- 
rand's crafty nature, of whom Napoleon once said that 
*' he treated his enemies as if they were one day to 
become his friends, and his friends as if they were to 
become his enemies," could have been pleasing enough 
to the young and poetical Chateaubriand, to draw him 
from the fascinating Quaker City. 

It is said that Monsieur de Talleyrand taught a French 
school during his stay in Newark ; but this does not 
seem to agree with the fact that he and his friends at the 
Frenchmen's Place kept a stable of horses, and, accord- 
ing to a Newark Frenchman known to the last genera- 
tion, that Talleyrand wore a diamond in his shirt-front as 
large as a pea. At any rate, he was a fascinating figure in 
the city's early history, when Broad Street was truly the 
garden-spot of New Jersey. 



90 



THE DECATUR HOUSE 

NEWARK 

WHERE COMMODORE STEPHEN DECATUR CAME 
TO TAKE PART IN THE NEWARK FOX-HUNTS 




HE grand old mansion facing 
Military Park, recently acquired 
by the Essex Club from the 
estate of the Peters family, was 
erected in the early part of the 
last century, and was once the 
home of John Decatur, brother 
of the famous Commodore 
Stephen Decatur. There the hero of Tripoli, when on 
leaves of absence, several times came to enjoy old-time 
Newark hospitality and share in the delights of the chase. 
Newark, with its miles of gently undulating farm- 
lands along the Passaic, which trade and modern enter- 
prise had not then desecrated, was an ideal fox-hunting 
country for long over half a century after the Revolu- 
tion, and the sport was indulged in to a greater extent 
in this vicinity than anywhere else in New Jersey. 
Many of the prominent families kept their own coursers. 
Young ladies took delight in their hard-won trophies, 
and from the frequency those one-time favorites, " The 
Jockey Club, or a Sketch of the Manners of the Age," 
and " The Female Jockey Club," were advertised in 

91 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

early newspapers, they must have found their way into 
every pretentious library. 

The GifFord tavern, with its gaudy sign-board of 
hunters and hounds hanging over the northeast corner 
of the present Broad and Market Streets, was a great 
rendezvous for the sporting element of the town. 
There many Southerners, especially from Virginia, came 
up to spend a month or two, bringing their families, and 
Archy GifFord,* the jolly landlord, was as well known in 
Westmoreland and Fairfax Counties as many a greater 
man of his generation. By the wide fireplace in the 
table-room, over mint juleps, mugs of brister beer, or 
bowls of hot toddy, many of the large meets were 
talked over and arranged, and it is safe to say that John 
Decatur always led in the discussions, as he was one of 
Newark's greatest devotees of the sport. In the assembly- 
room the hunt balls were held. These affairs must have 
rivalled the famous assemblies of Philadelphia, which 
met in the Pantheon room of Oellers's tavern. The 
latter were so strictly conducted that no stranger was 
admitted without a ticket signed by one of the managers, 
and no gentlemen allowed to enter in " boots, colored 
stockings, or undress." A Pemberton Ramsey, of Eliza- 

* Archer GifFord is said to have been a near relative of the GifFord 
who was host of the College Inn at Princetown, which flourished in the 
beginning of the past century. That forgotten landlord was a noted wag 
in his day, and also a poetical dabbler. His advertisements in old papers 
are always in verse, and his quaint sign-board which used to hang out- 
side of his tavern, and was in existence until a few years ago, bore the 
following amusing inscription : 

" Kind traveller, come rest your shins — 
At this the peer of college inns." 
92 



THE DECATUR HOUSE 



bethtown, wrote to a friend in New York of his having 
attended one of the Newark assembhes a week before the 
death of " the Immortal Washington." He found " a 
fine company present," and one lady by the name of 
Runyon — who, shades of scandal ! was said to be the 
daughter of a tailor — " wore a shocking low-cut but 
fashionable bodice." There, also, in the afternoons, I. 
Mitchell, the town dancing-master, gave instruction 
in the terpsichorean art. Dancing was more difficult 
in those days of intricate fancy steps than at present. 
In an old early eighteenth century copy of Wood's 
Newark Gazette and New Jersey Advertiser (which was 
the first paper printed in Newark with the exception of 
Hugh Gaine's one issue of his Gazette, published on 
September 28, 1776, when he was in hiding from the 
British of New York) there appears this quaint adver- 
tisement : 

"DANCING. 

'* The subscriber returns his unfeigned thanks to his former employers, 
and friends in general, for favors and encouragements already received, 
and informs them that he will open his class on Monday the 9th of May 
next in GifFord's Assembly Room, where he will as formerly teach 
Dancing serious and comic — 

**Such ladies and gentlemen, as wish to employ him for their im- 
provement in the polite and fashionable accomplishment of song singing, 
will be waited upon at their own lodgings. 

"I. Mitchell." 

One cannot help wishing that he could have obtained 
a peep at one of the classes in " serious and comic 
dancing," for no doubt the ladies in their tight frocks, 
and the gentlemen in their equally tight breeches, looked 

93 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

as grotesque as the figures in the ludicrous prints called 
" Waltzing," sold in great numbers at the time the " Sal- 
magundi Papers" were mildly terrorizing North River 
society. 

In the summer and fall-time large house-parties used 
to be held at the Decatur mansion, the guests coming 
from all over the country by stage-coach, or in great 
private vehicles. The drivers, footmen, and postilions 
in their gayly colored liveries must have been a sight 
well worth gazing on. A servant who ran away 
from his master in the nearby small city of Jersey, 
in 1820, and was advertised for in Newark, wore 
what would now be considered a comic opera attire 
of blue roundabout jacket, blue pantaloons, pink 
striped vest, yellow short trousers, and a pair of 
Wellington boots. 

Although Commodore Decatur was more noted as a 
hero than as a huntsman, his brother John was reputed 
to be the finest mount in Sussex County, and many 
anecdotes were related in his day of his prowess in the 
hunting-field. One of these, regarding a run with a Mr. 
Williamson, I have taken from some anonymous remi- 
niscences in an old daily paper, to show the keen interest 
in fox-hunting at that time : 

" Upon the occasion of a fox-chase which terminated on the farm of 
the late Henry L. Parkhurst, of Elizabethtown, both arriving at the 
death, Decatur, instead of undertaking to decapitate Reynard at the 
nether end with a knife, with the aid of a good set of teeth detached 
the brush, much to the disappointment of his friend Williamson, obtain- 
ing the brush or tail of Reynard, which is considered the highest point 
of honor with sportsmen." 

94 



THE DECATUR HOUSE 



We cannot help looking back at the gay meets at 
Newark in which the Cortlandts, Schuylers, Riitherfords, 
Jays, Porters, Kimballs, Kearneys, Roosevelts, Patersons, 
of the surrounding summer colonies, and so many of the 
residents and members of the French coteries of EUza- 
bethtown took part, without something of a spirit of 
exhilaration if we dwell long on the picture. The 
crowd of ladies and gentlemen on mettlesome horses, 
starting from the pump by the Gifford tavern on a mild 
canter, and then dashing off at full gallop over High 
Street westward through field and woodland, past the old 
Ogden place, rising out of leafy elms and spiked poplars 
like some nobleman's seat with its terraced grounds, on 
whose balustrades proud peacocks strutted. 

Yoicks ! yoicks ! we hear them call, and then comes 
the echo of a horn, almost flute-like in the distance. 
The whipper-in cracks his whip, the dogs are in full cry, 
the horses are headed in another direction, and the whole 
of the scarlet-coated company gallops off into the sunlit 
distance. 

There is a tradition that the wide hall of the Decatur 
House held the brushes of two hundred foxes ; and it 
may be true, as the halls of all the great houses of Newark 
always contained the sporting trophies of the different 
members of the family. On the lawn were several can- 
non-balls given to his brother as presents by Commodore 
Stephen Decatur. They remained as garden embellish- 
ments during the ownership of the house by the well- 
known Condit family. 



95 



PETERSBOROUGH 

NEWARK 

WHERE COLONEL PETER SCHUYLER, A HERO OF 
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, RIVALLED IN HIS 
MODE OF LIVING THE SCHUYLERS OF ALBANY 




HE Passaic River, sometimes 
called the Avon of New Jersey, 
formerly held many old home- 
steads on its banks, interesting 
in their histories. A few of 
them, sombre and melancholy 
tragedies in rotting timber and 
weather-stained brick, still repose 
above its once silvery waters, now polluted by refuse from 
the great factories of Newark and Paterson, but most of 
them are remodelled or are destroyed and forgotten. 

One among the former, whose original grandeur is 
still a memory, is fair Petersborough, the home of Col- 
onel Peter Schuyler. It was erected about 1735, of 
bricks imported from Holland, and in its day was the 
finest of all the residences facing the Passaic. 

Colonel Peter Schuyler was famed in the Canadian 
campaigns against the French and was a son of Arent 
Schuyler, the first owner of the Schuyler plantation in 
New Jersey. He was also a nephew of Peter Schuyler, 
mayor of Albany, who, when in England, became a 

96 



PETERSBOROUGH 



favorite at the court of good Oueen Anne. It is re- 
corded that he so ingratiated himself in the royal lady's 
favor that she offered to knight him, and presented him 
with a velvet-lined trunk of plate and some diamond 
ornaments. The title he refused, quaintly expressing 
himself that it might make his ladies vain, but the plate 
and diamonds he accepted, and portions of the gift are 
still in the possession of his descendants. 

In Arent Schuyler's time the famous Schuyler copper- 
mines were discovered. An old slave, who was ploughing 
not far from the first homestead, which is still standing in a 
modernized condition, turned up a heavy green stone, and, 
wondering at its oddity, took it to his master. Schuyler 
sent it to New York for analyzation, and it was found to 
contain a large percentage of copper. This find opened up 
a great source of wealth to the family. Like the good 
fairy in the tale, Schuyler told his slave to wish for three 
things which were possible, and he would procure them for 
him. The poor old negro asked, first, that he might always 
live with his master ; secondly, that he might have all the 
tobacco he could smoke ; and thirdly, that he might 
have a gaudy banyan or dressing-gown like his master's. 
" Oh, ask for something of value," Schuyler said to him, 
so the story goes; and the black man, after hesitating a few 
minutes, replied, " Well, give me a little more tobacco." 

John Schuyler, Peter's brother, inherited the Schuyler 
homestead and copper-mines at New Barbadoes Neck.* 

* The first steam-engine west of the Hudson River was erected here. 
It was a Newcommen engine, and, according to Dr. Franklin, cost one 
thousand pounds. It was in use in 1755, and destroyed at the beginning 
of the Revolutionary War. 

7 97 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



He had machinery brought from England to faciHtate 
operations, and shipped great quantities of ore to Bristol, 
to be made into copper pans and kettles. Most likely- 
many of them found their way again to the Colonies and 
were used by the good housewives of New Jersey. 

There are traditions that the Schuyler brothers were 
often called by the neighboring residents, the " Schuyler 
Kings." From the luxury with which they were sur- 
rounded, and their elegant style of living, they rivalled 
their famous Albany cousins, and even their sovereign, 
George II., who was more frugal in expenditure than 
many a rich commoner of his reign. 

Petersborough proper, like noblemen's seats of the 
period, was surrounded by many smaller buildings, in- 
cluding, so an old description says, "An overseer's 
house, coach-house, boat-house, greenhouse, ice-house, 
stables, barns, negro quarters, and summer-houses." The 
large park was stocked with deer and rare varieties of 
game, and the gardens were filled with shrubs and trees 
imported from England. 

Elegant furniture and articles of virtue graced the 
interior of Petersborough. But few known pieces re- 
main to testify to its departed grandeur. In the rooms 
of the New Jersey Historical Society, at Newark, there 
is a most curious and interesting portrait of Colonel 
Peter Schuyler, painted very much in the early manner 
of Benjamin West, and dubbed " the Portrait with the 
Spectre." Standing directly in front of it one sees a 
grand and noble-looking man in the uniform of the 
" Jersey Blues," with a face that is calm and benign. 
Viewing it at an angle, this face is entirely obHterated 

98 



PETERSBOROUGH 



and in its place is a youth's face, lean and ferret-like, 
of a gray hue, which matches his wig and piercing 
eyes. There is something very unreal and ghostly 
about it, so much so that even the librarian, who has 
it for a constant companion, declares that nothing 
would induce her to remain in the room alone with 
it after dusk. 

It has been said that Colonel Peter Schuyler once lived 
at Elizabethtown ; and this may be true, as he owned the 
large residence there which had formerly belonged to 
Governor Philip Carteret. This mansion was sold to him, 
or his father, — historians differ on the point, — by Colonel 
Richard Townley, who married Elizabeth Carteret after 
the death of the governor. Peter Schuyler converted it 
into a tavern, and as " The Ship" it became a noted gather- 
ing-place for the aristocrats of the beautiful town named 
after the lovely wife of Sir George Carteret, of whom the 
indefatigable gossiper, Samuel Pepys, wrote in his diary 
as a most virtuous lady. 

Great entertainments took place at Petersborough in 
its early days, but none could have been more interesting 
than the welcome-home fete which occurred there when 
the aged hero returned from Quebec, in 1757, a prisoner 
of war on parole. His brave qualities and his goodness 
to the men under his command in the disastrous northern 
campaign were lauded to the skies, and wherever he 
went in the months following he was greeted with plaudits 
as flattering as those lines presented to him by a young 
lady of Princetown : 

*' Welcome, Schuyler, every shepherd sings. 
See, for thy brows, the laurel is prepared." 
99 

L.ofC. 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

Colonel Peter Schuyler had one child, a daughter, 
who married Archibald Kennedy, Earl of Casselis and 
a gentleman of great wealth. He was the owner of the 
estate known as " the Duke's Farm," at Ahasimus, and a 
fine mansion on Broadway, New York City. After 
Schuyler's death, in 1762, Petersborough came into his 
possession, and became widely known in Revolutionary 
times as Kennedy's farm. 

Archibald Kennedy was very intimate with the 
Kearney family, who lived at the old Kearney manor 
house close by. This aged homestead is now owned 
by a descendant of the Kearney family, Mrs. Susan 
Grand d'Hauteville, of the Chateau d'Hauteville, par 
Veley, France, who has carefully preserved its interior 
and exterior as she knew it in her youth. He is also 
said to have been an intimate friend of John Rutherford, 
who built the recently destroyed Egerston Manor at Boil- 
ing Springs, now Rutherford, one of the greatest seats of 
hospitality in New Jersey.* 

After the war, Kennedy's farm was cut up and sold 
off in small portions, and to-day the beauty of the spot 
where Colonel Peter Schuyler rivalled the Schuylers of 
Albany in his elegant mode of living has entirely disap- 
peared 

* Egerston Manor, of Rutherford, New Jersey, was named after a 
family seat of the Rutherfords, in Scotland. It was much frequented 
by Chief Justice John Jay when in search of relaxation from his 
judicial labors. 



100 



COCKLOFT HALL 

NEWARK 

WHERE GOUVERNEUR KEMBLE ENTER- 
TAINED THE FAMOUS "SALMAGUNDI SET" 




OT far from Petersborough there 
stood until about 1850 a vener- 
able mansion, beloved by the 
reading world as Cockloft Hall. 
There Christopher Cockloft, 
Aunt Charity, and the whole of 
the interesting Cockloft family 
were created by Irving and his 
friends in the early days of the last century. 

The walls are all that remain of the old dwelling, 
and they are embedded in a comparatively modern build- 
ing, bearing little resemblance to the historic " country 
box," called Mount Pleasant, willed by a member of 
the Gouverneur family to Gouverneur Kemble, the inti- 
mate of Washington Irving and host of the famous 
" Salmagundi Set." 

Old Cockloft Hall, so charmingly described in the 
" Salmagundi Papers," was erected previous to the year 
1 750, by Nicholas Gouverneur, a gentleman prominent 
in New York and New Jersey, and George Washington 
is said to have stopped there when in the vicinity during 
the Revolution. It was a two-storied structure of im- 

lOI 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



mense width, surrounded by terraced lawns sloping to the 
river. Nicholas Gouverneur * had accumulated wealth 
in a mercantile business, and was a man of exceptional 
taste, from the tales of the ornature of his home. 
Some of his account-books are in possession of the 
Whiting family, who now occupy the Hall. He was 
very fond of the feathered tribe. Over the front door, 
facing the river, there was a large glass aviary con- 
taining several scores of the then rare canary birds. 
The great entrance hall itself was papered with the rich 
and beautiful tropical bird paper still to be seen in a few 
old houses here and abroad. 

In the Chinese drawing-room, • or in the summer- 
house, whose three windows looked inland, that the pro- 
prietor, as Irving says, " may have all the views of his 
own land and be beholden to no man for a prospect," 
many of those laughable papers on " North River Soci- 
ety," were planned and written. When they appeared 
they delighted and terrorized the society of the young 
metropolis. The contributors to the " good natured vil- 
lany," were James Kirke Paulding, under the name of 
Langstaff, and Washington and William .Irving, who 
figured in its pages as Anthony Evergreen and William 
Wizard respectively. These wits were helped in their 
work by the criticisms of the other members of the 
ancient club of Gotham, which included the owner of 
Cockloft Hall, dubbed the Patroon, Henry Brevoort, Jr., 
and oftentimes other of Irving's friends. 

We can imagine how glad this group of young literati 

* Nicholas Gouverneur was a grandson of the Abraham Gouverneur 
who married the daughter of Governor Jacob Leslie, of New York. 



102 



COCKLOFT HALL 



were to leave their offices in dingy New York buildings 
on Saturday afternoons in the summer-time and seek 
Kemble's peaceful retreat on the Passaic. The interest- 
ing Paulding, who in his later career became Secretary of 
the Navy, must have been thinking of his many happy 
journeys there when he wrote the introduction to his little 
squib called "The Lay of the Scottish Fiddle," for the fol- 
lowing lines bring a picture of them very vividly before us: 

♦' Now crossed they noble Hudson's tide. 
In steamboat, young Columbia's pride. 
And meet it is the poet say 
They paid no ferriage by the way. 
Through Jersey City straight they wend. 
And Bergen hill-tops slow ascend. 
Whence he who is possessed of eyes 
A gallant prospect often spies. 
Far off the noiseless ocean rolled, 
A pure expanse of burnished gold. 
And nearer spread a various view 
Of objects beautiful and new ; 
Fair Hackensack, Passaic smooth. 
Whose gentle murmurs sweetly soothe ; 
And Newark Bay, and Arthur's Sound ; 
And many an island spread around 
Like fat green turtles fast asleep 
O'er the still surface of the deep. 
And Gotham might you see, whose spires 
Shone in the sun like meteor fires. 
The vessels lay all side by side. 
And spread a leafless forest wide ; 
And now and then the Yo heave O ! 
Borne on the breeze, all sad and slow, 
Seemed like the requiem of trade. 
Low in its grave forever laid." 
103 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

Oh, those pleasant journeys of the long ago ! We 
can hear the gay voices of the merry party on the coach- 
top. How they must have enjoyed the flora and fauna 
of the wide sweep of country beyond Bergen Hill. 
The Swartwout brothers,* a few years later, spent a vast 
fortune improving these marshlands in hopes of making 
it a great home market garden for New York ! Did 
the fair Matilda HofFman,f whom Irving loved so de- 
votedly at this time, and whose untimely death doomed 
him to walk life's pathway alone, ever sit beside him *? 
There is no one alive who can truly answer us now. 
The road to Newark at that time was called by many 
waggish travellers the "road to Venice," there were 
so many bridges to cross and mires and pools to sink 
into. When the mud-bespattered road finally landed 
them at the Hall, they indulged in " madcap pranks" and 
"juvenile orgies" for the rest of the afternoon. Irving's 
nephew and biographer, Mr. Pierre M. Irving, tells us 

* John and Samuel Swartwout purchased over four thousand acres of 
marshland back of Bergen Hill in 1815. In three years they spent 
about three hundred thousand dollars in fighting the tides and improving 
the land for an enormous vegetable garden. The venture was anything 
but a success, and proved the financial ruin of the two brothers, who 
were prominent in early New York. 

■f Matilda Hoffman was the daughter of a distinguished lawyer of 
New York, under whose guidance Washington Irving read law, and in 
whose family he was very intimate. " Fair Matilda," for whom Irving 
formed such a serious attachment, was noted for her ethereal beauty, her 
sweet nature, and cultured mind. Her death, which occurred in his 
young manhood, wrecked his whole life, but did not dry up the sweet 
springs of his nature, and, as one writer has said, failed to harm his 
generous and beautiful soul. 

104 



COCKLOFT HALL 



that at the age of sixty-six Washington Irving exclaimed 
to Gouverneur Kemble, in alluding to their scenes of 
past jollity, " That we should have ever lived to be two 
such respectable old gentlemen !" 

However interesting Irving and his friends may be to 
us, we can only associate them with Cockloft Hall 
through the fact that they peopled it with so many odd 
and entertaining characters. Who wants to think that 
his Pindar Cockloft, spending his life in writing epi- 
grams and elegies, and then hiding them in his chests 
and chair bottoms, did not exist, and that old Aunt 
Charity, who died in "antiquated virginity" from an 
attack of the fidgets over a pension Frangaise which she 
could not investigate and get to the bottom of, never 
rustled through Cockloft parlors and distributed her 
" verb" teas from " famous wormwood down to gentle 

balm"^ , 

In many of the " Salmagundi Papers" there are de- 
scriptions of the aged abode of the Cockloft family, 
and from what is known of the old dwelling, " which 
groaned whenever the wind blew," they could not have 
been entirely the work of a brilliant imagination. We 
are told that Cousin Christopher had a great propensity 
to save everything that bore the stamp of family an- 
tiquity, and from the vast quantity of old furniture 
in the house when Irving and his friends visited it, some 
one in the departed Gouverneur family was very much 
like him in that respect. 

Old CiEsar, the faithful servant, who ruled his crochety 
master, most Hkelyhad a prototype, and it is known that 
the Gouverneur stable held a great chariot, almost the 

105 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

duplicate of the one owned by the Cocklofts, " made in 
the last French war, and drawn by old horses indubi- 
tably foaled in Noah's ark !" 

As the " Salmagundi Papers" made the place famous, 
it is no more than fair to Launcelot LangstafF to close 
this chapter with a few of his own descriptions of the 
once famous spot. He says, — 

**The mansion appears to have been consecrated to the jolly god, 
and teems with monuments sacred to conviviality. Every chest of 
drawers, clothes-press, and cabinet is decorated with enormous china 
punch-bowls, which Mrs. Cockloft has paraded with much ostentation, 
particularly in her favorite red damask bedchamber, in which a projector 
might, with great satisfaction, practise his experiments on fleets, diving- 
bells, and submarine boats. 

** My allotted chamber in the Hall is the same that was occupied in 
days of yore by my honored uncle John. The room exhibits many 
memorials which recall to my remembrance the solid excellence and 
amiable eccentricities of that gallant old lad. Over the mantel-piece hangs 
the portrait of a young lady dressed in a flaring, long-waisted, blue silk 
gown ; beflowered and befurbelowed and becufFed in a most abundant man- 
ner ; she holds in one hand a book, which she very complaisantly neglects, 
to turn and smile on the spectator ; in the other a flower, which I hope, 
for the honor of Dame Nature, was the sole production of the painter's 
imagination ; and a little behind her is something tied to a blue riband ; but 
whether a little dog, a monkey, or a pigeon must be left to the judgment 
of future commentators. — This little damsel, tradition says, was my uncle 
John's third flame ; and he would have infallibly run away with her could 
he have persuaded her into the measure ; but at that time ladies were not 
so easily run away with as Columbine ; and my uncle, failing in the 
point, took a lucky thought, and with great gallantry ran off with her 
picture, which he conveyed in triumph to Cockloft Hall and hung it in 
his bedchamber as a monument of his enterprising spirit." 

Writing of his cousin Christopher's famous cherry- 
tree, which stood until a few years ago, he says, — 

io6 



COCKLOFT HALL 



"Another object ot his peculiar affection is an old English cherry- 
tree, which leans against a corner oi' the Hall ; and whether the house 
supports it, or it supports the house, would be, I believe, a question of 
some difficulty to decide. It is held sacred by friend Christopher be- 
cause he planted and reared it himself, and had once well-nigh broken 
his neck by a fall from one of its branches. This is one of his favorite 
stories, and there is reason to believe that if the tree was out of the way, 
the old gentleman would forget the whole of the aiFair — which would 
be a great pity. . . . 

*♦ He often contemplates it in a half-melancholy, half-moralizing 
humor. * Together,' he says, 'have we flourished, and together shall 
we wither away ; a few years, and both our heads will be laid low, and 
perhaps my mouldering bones may one day or other mingle with the 
dust of the tree I have planted.' " 

Poor old gentleman ! little did his chronicler dream 
that it would outlive his own unwhitened hair, and shade 
for many years a new Cockloft Hall, a child of the 
beautiful retreat of the Salmagundi set. 



107 



LIBERTY HALL 

ELIZABETH 



WHERE SUSANNAH LIVINGSTON SAVED THE GOV- 
ERNOR'S STATE PAPERS BY ACTING FOR THE BRITISH 




OLLOWING the Newark Road 
to Old Elizabethtown, and 
swerving off into Livingston 
Lane until the Morris turnpike 
road is reached, there are few 
houses of any pretentions until 
one comes to the well-preserved 
mansion and estate of William 
Livingston, a New York lawyer, who became New 
Jersey's famous Revolutionary governor. 

The hundreds of trees this worthy imported from 
France and England and planted with his own hands 
are now grown to mammoth giants. In his own time 
he would sit on his "piazzy" and lament that they 
gave him very little shade, and were small adornment 
to his home. If he could see them to-day he would be 
content, for in their proud virility, standing on well-kept 
lawns, and interlacing their branches over one of the most 
beautiful bits of roadway in America, they rival many of 
the noble armies of trees about the storied homes abroad. 
Liberty Hall was erected in the year 1772, and at out- 
break of the troubles with England received its name. 

108 



LIBERTY HALL 



It is traditionally related that William Livingston 
selected Elizabethtown for his permanent residence 
owing to the advanced state of its society, the greater 
portion of which was rich and cultured. This no doubt 
influenced him somewhat, but at the time he removed 
there with his family his finances were at a very low ebb, 
and he himself wrote to a friend that he sought the 
country in justice to his children. 

William Livingston was intensely patriotic, and a 
story is told that he forbade his daughters the pleasure 
of tea-drinking after the mother-country's tax on that 
luxury. His second daughter, Susannah, was a famous 
wit, and the originator of the hackneyed Revolutionary 
bon-mot* about scarlet fever being caught from the 
coats of the British. She often concocted a beverage of 
the Chinese herb on the sly, colored it with strawberries, 
and told her " deceived papa" that she had taken to 
drinking strawberry-tea. 

The " Livingston graces," as the three eldest Livingston 
girls, Sarah, Susan, and Kitty, were sometimes called, 
were general favorites in New York and Jersey society. 
They drew so many gallant cavaliers and venturesome 
belles to Liberty Hall, where they were buried in a se- 
questered part of the globe, as they expressed it, that the 
governor, who prided himself on being a simple Jersey 
farmer, had to occasionally read to the gay companies 

* In New York City at the time of the British evacuation, while 
conversing with Major Upham, one of Lord Dorchester's aids, she ex- 
pressed the hope that the redcoats would soon depart ; " for," said she, 
** among our incarcerated belles the scarlet fever must rage until you are 
gone." 

109 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

his poem on the choice of a rural Hfe, in which he asks 
to be deUvered 

" From ladies, lap-dogs, courtiers, garters, stars. 
Fops, fiddlers, tyrants, emperors, and czars." 

Nor did the graces languish for want of company in 
their own neighborhood, for the young men of Francis 
Barber's academy often rode over from the village to 
see them. One of its pupils, a blue-eyed and fair-haired 
boy from the West Indies, by the name of Alexander 
Hamilton, brought letters of introduction to their father, 
became a member of their household, and entered into 
a close intimacy with them lasting through life. 

In the April of 1774 Sarah, the eldest daughter, was 
married, in the great parlor of Liberty Hall, to John Jay, 
a rising young lawyer of New York. She was a great 
beauty, and shared her husband's later triumphs in France, 
Spain, New York City, and Philadelphia. When pre- 
sented at the French Court, Marie Antoinette is said to 
have taken her hand, a mark of great condescension, and 
gazed ardently into her eyes, remarking that she was one 
of the fairest women she had ever looked upon ; which 
can be believed after studying the many portraits and 
prints of her in existence. It is recorded that the bril- 
liancy of her complexion gave rise to much speculation 
in Revolutionary society. Even the French Minister, 
Monsieur Gerard, went so far as to lay a wager with Don 
Juan de Miralles, the brilliant soldier of fortune who 
died at the Ford Mansion in Morristown, that her color 
was artificial. A scheme was laid and a test performed, 
and the not over-gallant Frenchman lost his bet. 



LIBERTY HALL 



The honey-moon of the Jays was rudely interrupted 
by the troubles with the mother-country, and one month 
after their marriage we find the young husband attending 
the first meeting of the citizens of New York, called there 
to consult on measures proper to be pursued in conse- 
quence of the late extraordinary advices received from 
England. The struggle for American independence was 
in sight, and John Jay and his brilliant father-in-law 
were soon to be conspicuous actors on the stage. 

Some time after William Franklin, the last of Jersey's 
royal governors, had been deposed, and William Livings- 
ton at the head of the affairs of state was flitting hither 
and thither over the country, the British troops began 
the first of their long series of foraging expeditions in 
the vicinity ot Elizabethtown and Newark. These 
raids eventually led the Livingston family to desert their 
Hall for a retreat in Parsippany, spelt in old newspapers 
Parcipany, farther away from the hostile neighborhood. 
Throughout the long war the governor saw compara- 
tively little of his dear ones, due to his active service 
requiring him to be much of his time in the saddle. 
To add to the uneasiness of his family, a large reward 
was offered by the Tories for his capture, and many were 
his hair-breath escapes. 

All through those dreary summers and drearier 
winters Liberty Hall was not deserted altogether, for it 
was occasionally visited by raiding parties, and now and 
then served as a shelter for some passing troop. Between 
the needs of the two armies almost everything the house 
contained was either pillaged or destroyed, and when the 
family again ventured to return to it as an abode, in 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



^779' g^^tle Mrs. Livingston was in despair for the 
necessities of life, while Susan wrote to her friends in 
her usually sprightly fashion, bemoaning the household's 
sad fate, and declaring that even the " window-panes and 
hinges" had been taken away. 

It was in the latter part of the same winter that this 
brave and charming girl, whose early life had more than 
its share of romance, saved her father's despatches and 
correspondence with Washington and minor officials 
from the hands of the redcoats by exhibiting her talents 
as an actress. No one knows whether the moon was 
full or the night dark and misty when two British regi- 
ments, one thousand strong, under the command of 
Lieutenant-Colonel Stirling, found their way from Crane's 
Landing, on the outskirts of the town, through February 
slush, to the home of the rebel governor, hoping to 
surprise and capture him in bed. The tale has come 
down to us that the first division arrived after midnight, 
and awoke the startled family from their slumbers only 
to find that their intended victim, having learned of the 
plot, had prudently left his dwelling some hours before 
their coming. Angered and infuriated, they rushed 
through the rooms, commanding the trembling family to 
search for his despatches. It was then that Susan rose so 
bravely to that occasion, leading them into every nook and 
corner but the right one, where the papers lay carefully 
folded in a little secretary, and pleading with them to 
spare a lady's private correspondence when they at last 
arrived at its locked cover. " If you will leave it shut," 
she said to the officer in charge, wringing her hands, " I 
will promise to give up my father's papers ;" and the red- 



LIBERTY HALL 



coat and his companions, beguiled by her pretty face, 
and scenting some romance, followed her with his men 
to the library, where from the highest book-shelf she 
took down quantities and quantities of old law-briefs, 
neatly tied up and important-looking, which the eager 
men stuffed into their forage-bags, in the belief that they 
were securing enough matter to turn the whole rebel 
army topsy-turvy. 

After they had all left with their bulky burden? of 
paper, and the great hall door was again locked, we can 
imagine how the clever Susan must have been hugged 
and congratulated on the success of her ruse, and if we 
could have gazed on the finale of the comedy we would 
have most likely seen an excited girl in one of those 
gayly flowered night-robes the wealthy belles of New 
Jersey wore at that time, pirouetting through the Hall 
in the gray dawn of the coming day. 

In later years, after the exciting times of the war were 
over. Liberty Hall was visited by many distinguished 
Americans, among them Mrs. Washington and Mrs. 
Morris, who stopped there on their way to New York 
for the President's inauguration festivities. 

At the beginning of the next century Susannah's 
daughter hoodwinked her mother in the same room 
where she herself had acted so cleverly before the Brit- 
ish, and eloped from a window with her true love, 
William Henry Harrison, then not approved of by the 
family, but who afterwards became the ninth President 
of the United States. 

Some time later the mansion passed out of the pos- 
session of the Livingstons and fell into the hands of 
8 113 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

strangers. Fate, not content with giving it such an in- 
teresting history, connected it with another romantic 
episode, for it was purchased by Lord BoHngbroke. 
This nobleman ran away from England with the young 
daughter of Baron Hompasch, and dragged an honored 
name in the dust by leaving a forlorn wife in London. 

When it was again for sale, Mrs. McKean, the daughter 
of the governor's brother, acquired it. She was at that 
tiniv a widow, and subsequently married Count Niem- 
cewicz, a Polish litterateur. In her time the mansion 
was slightly modernized by an additional story and a new 
wing, but its venerable appearance was not destroyed. 
She changed its name to Ursina, which is still retained 
by its present occupant, John Kean, the great-grand- 
nephew of the governor, but to the chance frequenters 
who revere the past it will ever be Liberty Hall, the 
home of the patriot William Livingston and his family, 
and especially the charming graces,* Sarah, Susan, and 
Kitty, who were so distinguished for their beauty, wit, 
and vivacity in the days of the colonies and the young 
republic. 

* Susannah Livingston married John Cleves Symmes, a Justice of 
the New Jersey Supreme Court. 

Kitty Livingston married Matthew Ridley, of Baltimore, and after 
his decease became the wife of John Livingston, of Livingston Manor. 



114 



BOXWOOD HALL 

ELIZABETH 

WHERE GENERAL WASHINGTON MET THE 
COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS AND LUNCHED 
ON THE DAY OF HIS INAUGURATION 




'ERHAPS the most noted man- 
sion in Elizabethtown proper is 
Boxwood Hall, the home of 
Elias Boudinot, the President of 
the Continental Congress, and 
who as such signed the treaty 
of peace with Great Britain at 
the close of the Revolution. 
It was erected a few years earlier than Liberty Hall, 
and rivalled the great houses of Cavalier Jouet, Broughton 
Reynolds, Robert Ogden, William Peartree Smith, Dr. 
Jonathan I. Dayton, and other wealthy Elizabethtown 
residents of the period. Its great carved mantels and 
many other of its interior embellishments were pur- 
chased by one of the family in France ; and there are 
traditions that the immortal Washington — who was 
more of " a glass of fashion and a mould of form" 
than many of his biographers have made us believe — 
praised the beauty of its furnishings. 

From the cheerful boxwood, loved and planted by our 
ancestors, whether occupants of palaces or cottages, Elias 

115 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

Boudinot named his residence. All the plants which 
formerly surrounded it have died or been transplanted, 
and yet the name still clings to the old building. It is 
now a peaceful refuge for elderly women. 

Elias Boudinot was a descendant of a prominent 
French Huguenot family which had fled from France 
to the New World on the revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes. He served his country in many capacities, and 
was the founder of the American Bible Society and other 
beneficent institutions. In early life he married Hannah 
Stockton, a sister of Richard Stockton, the Signer. 
This marriage drew together the interests of two very 
wealthy and prominent New Jersey families, and the 
alliance was afterwards made stronger by the gay and 
charming little Annis Boudinot's capture of the heart 
of the distinguished Richard. Petite Annis Boudinot, 
in a rose-hued gown,* holding a flower in her slender 
fingers, as an old painter has pictured her for us, seems 
to smile at the modern world like some quaint and very 
unreal figure on a Watteau fan. She was a poetess, 
and quite a noted one in her day, her odes to famous 
people rivalling the like productions of Miss Lawrence, 
of Burlington, the half-sister of Captain Lawrence, of 
" Don't give up the Ship" fame, Mercy Otis, of Massa- 
chusetts, and beautiful Nelly Forman, of Forman Place, 
near Freehold, who became the wife of Philip Freneau, 
the poet of the Revolution. 

Boxwood Hall held an interesting household in the 
dark days of the Revolution. There was the dis- 

* Several of Mrs. Stockton's gowns were recently exhibited at a loan 
exhibition held in St. Mark's parish hall, Jersey City, New Jersey. 

ii6 



BOXWOOD HALL 



tinguished Elias, very often absent on business of state, 
cultured Mrs. Boudinot, Elisha, his brother, who lived 
with the family until his marriage with Kate Smith in 
1778, when he removed to Newark, and the idolized 
daughter, Susan, who was a girl of great spirit and the 
apple of her father's eye. It is said of her that on one 
occasion Boxwood Hall was levied on by a party of 
the enemy, and she showed her mettle by scornfully re- 
marking to the commanding officer that one of the mem- 
bers of the household had asked for British protection. 
" It was not by your advice, I presume," the redcoat is 
said to have asked her; and she fearlessly replied, 
" That it never was, I can tell you." This brave girl, 
whom her father writes of about this time as his " little 
lamb," in after years became the wife of William Brad- 
ford, Attorney-General under Washington, and lived to 
be the last of the " Washington circle," as that brilliant 
group of celebrated women surrounding the President's 
wife was called. 

Towards the close of the war great was the joy of 
Elias Boudinot's frequent home-comings from Philadel- 
phia, where he was striving to frame a new government. 
While there he was continually longing for his family. 
In one of his letters, written in the fall of 1 782, he says, — 

" I wish I had any news worth communicating, but we are quite 
barren. The negotiation for peace at Versailles goes on slowly, but I 
hope the coming winter will revive it with spirit — I am homesick for 
Elizabethtown." 

It was almost a year later when he realized his hope 
and was free to return to Boxwood Hall for a lengthy 
period. Much of the charm of his home-coming 

117 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



was lost by the sadness which filled Elizabethtown at 
that time, although the colonies had become free and 
independent States. Many Tory families he had known 
intimately were in exile and their homes for sale, old 
friends had died, and the house of worship, court-house, 
school-house, barracks, and a great deal of property in 
the borough had been destroyed by the redcoats during 
the war. Walking through familiar streets, he felt as sad 
and solitary as his intimate friend. Governor Livingston, 
who complained, on returning to Liberty Hall, that the 
village of Elizabethtown was full of " unrecommended 
strangers, guilty-looking Tories, and very knavish Whigs." 
But this state of affairs did not long continue, and the 
general appearance of the town soon began to change. 
Lotteries were devised to rebuild the public buildings, 
and many new families, several belonging to the exiled 
French nobility, arrived to establish permanent homes. 

The author has in his possession one of the original 
handbills printed by Shepard Kollock for "the great 
Elizabeth Town and New-Brunswick lottery." It no- 
tifies the public that it is arranged " for the purpose of 
raising a sum of money to be applied towards finishing 
a building to be erected by the first Presbyterian Con- 
gregation in Elizabeth Town and one erected by the 
Presbyterian Congregation in New-Brunswick for the 
purpose of Divine worship, in room of those destroyed 
in said places during the late war." Jonathan Dayton 
and Aaron Lane were its managers, and the scheme pro- 
vided for three thousand seven hundred and twenty-nine 
prizes. The old handbill, printed in large type, is about 
the size of a newspaper of to-day, and it and its fellows, 

ii8 



BOXWOOD HALL 



when issued, were distributed in shop and tavern, and to 
all prominent persons in the town. 

About this time, too, the " Indian Oueen," * famous 
in the annals of Elizabethtown, was built. Thaddeus 
Kosciusko, when on his second visit to America, and 
many other noted people, enjoyed its hospitality. Ac- 
cording to an old diary, at least one birth-night ball 
was held there, when the youth and beauty of the 
neighborhood danced until dawn. In its early days it 
had been used as a private dwelling by a Tory, and the 
surrounding garden contained foreign shrubs and fruit- 
trees stolen from near-by Whig residences during the 
war. So heralded abroad was the fame of its good fare 
and fine liquors that its tap-room was never empty, and 
it is a tradition that the proprietor advertised a chair always 
in readiness for any gentleman who had to be conveyed 
to his home. 

During these years many distinguished people visited 
Boxwood Hall before Elias Boudinot and his family 
left it to establish a new home in Philadelphia,f then 
the seat of government. 

In General Washington's triumphal journey to his in- 
auguration at New York, April 30, 1 789, he met the com- 
mittee of Congress there and partook of an elegant lunch- 
eon. This famous meal was served on a fine service of 
china and silverware imported from London, many pieces 

* This tavern most likely received its name from the play of <* The 
Indian Queene," a famous tragedy by Sir Robert Howard and John 
Dryden. Samuel Pepys writes of it in his diary, ** that for show it 
exceeds, so they say, Henry VIII." 

■}• Elias Boudinot' s home near Philadelphia was known as Rose Hill. 

119 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

of which are in the possession of one of his descendants. 
Among those who ate in the great dining-room on this 
occasion were the President to be, General Washington, 
Richard Henry Lee, Theodoric Bland, and Arthur Lee, 
of Virginia ; General Knox, the Secretary of War, from 
Maine ; Tristam Dalton, from Massachusetts ; Wil- 
liam Samuel Johnson, from Connecticut ; Charles Car- 
roll, from Maryland ; Governor Livingston, of New 
Jersey ; Ralph Izard and Thomas Tudor Tucker, from 
South Carolina ; Egbert Benson, John Lawrence, John 
Jay, Chancellor Livingston, and others, from New York. 
It took two hours to serve the courses, one chronicler 
tells us, and when it was over, the " Father of his 
Country" was escorted by a great procession to East- 
town Point, where he embarked in a barge bedecked 
with ribbons, and was ved to New York City by thir- 
teen sailors dressed in white. 

Much of the charm of the old Boxwood Hall of 
to-day has been destroyed for antiquarians and lovers of 
the past by the addition of two hideously ugly modern 
stories, but the lower rooms have not been desecrated to 
any great degree. The immense fireplaces, where fires 
once glowed so brightly for Washington, are now the 
same, the great brass knocker he touched when entering 
the Hall still gives dignity to the old door, and the 
memory of his noble presence fills the lofty, spacious 
rooms. 



120 



THE BELCHER MANSION 

ELIZABETH 



THE SCENE OF THE WAR-TIME WEDDING 
OF -CATY" SMITH AND ELISHA BOUDINOT 




• CROSS the way from Boxwood 
Hall, on the south side of Jersey 
Street, is the old Holland brick 
mansion of saintly Governor 
Jonathan Belcher, of whom the 
incomparable Whitefield wrote 
when stopping with him, " He 
was ripening for Heaven apace." 
In Governor Belcher's time many men of importance 
in the colonies were entertained there, but it is safe to say 
that the most notable gathering its walls ever sheltered 
occurred many years after the death of that worthy. 
The occasion was the wedding of Kate, or " Caty," as 
some of her friends spelt her name, daughter of WiUiam 
Peartree Smith, then its owner, and young Elisha Bou- 
dinot. It was celebrated in the fall of 1778, in the midst 
of war-time dangers and alarms. William Peartree Smith 
was a graduate of Yale College, and a life-long intimate 
of Governor Livingston. He belonged to a notable New 
York family, and was a grandson of one of its early 
mayors. His father, "Port Royal" Smith, Governor- 
General of Jamaica, is known to have been a friend of 



121 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

Governor Belcher's, and William Peartree corresponded 
with the good governor in his early manhood, and was a 
strong supporter of his pet project, the young College of 
New Jersey. He is said to have removed from New 
York to the commodious Belcher Mansion out of love 
for the memory of his famous friend, and there, in the 
years before the Revolution, his sons Belcher and Wil- 
ham and his only daughter, Kate, grew to manhood and 
womanhood. Tradition says that Kate Smith was a 
lovely girl at the time of her marriage, and had enjoyed 
a better education than most of the women of the day. 
Her mother was the daughter of a wealthy sea-captain, 
who had taken her to London with him on one of his 
trips, and while there she had mingled freely in learned 
society, and enjoyed the friendship of Dr. Watts and 
other distinguished men of the London world. She was 
thus a fitting helpmate for a literary man. William 
Peartree Smith was a writer of both prose and poetry, 
and at one period edited a paper with Governor Liv- 
ingston. 

There had been many notable weddings in Elizabeth 
during 1778. In the spring beautiful Nancy Ogden 
married Lieutenant-Colonel Barber. From a sketch of 
him done by a brother-officer on the field, he was her 
mate in good looks.* Two other belles shortly after- 
wards married French officers, and there are no records 
of the many Tory maidens of high and low degree who 
were won by the flash of gold epaulets and scarlet coats. 
But no wedding had created such a furore before its 

* From this sketch James Herring painted a portrait of Colonel Barber, 
which became well-known through Stephen H. Gimbell's engraving. 



THE BELCHER MANSION 



celebration In prominent Whig circles as that which was 
to occur at the old Belcher Mansion. It was early- 
rumored abroad that Washington and his staff were to 
be there, and as many officers as could safely leave head- 
quarters, for there was ever a dread of a surprise from 
Skinner's notorious raiders from Staten Island or the 
Tories of the surrounding country. 

When the eventful day in October at last arrived, the 
realization far exceeded the anticipation of this wedding, 
if we can believe all the tales of the ceremony that have 
wandered down the years to us. Many a great bowl of 
punch made of costly old wines, necessary for nuptial luck, 
stood on Governor Belcher's old celleret, built in the house 
and still in existence, for gentlemen drank in those days, 
and the first gentlemen in the land were there. Reading 
Emeline Pierson's charming sketch of " Old-Time Jersey 
Weddings," it takes but little imagination to picture the 
grand old rooms of the Belcher Mansion aglow with 
many lighted candles and filled with the noise and 
gay badinage of a courtly company, and the rustling 
of stiff brocades. The sweet-faced bride flits before us 
in her towering white head-dress, decorated with jewels, 
and a gorgeous gown, which may have been one of 
those " London Trades," or, in other words, an article 
procured in some way from the loyalists, either by money 
or in exchange for grain or garden produce. Governor 
Livingston, who dearly loved to keep his world in order, 
was always ranting about them in his letters, declaring 
that women would willingly sacrifice a second Paradise 
for the sake of their adornment. Then comes the 
bridegroom in his gay wedding-suit, surrounded by a 

123 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

merry group of bridesmaids and groomsmen. Among the 
guests we see Generals Washington and Lafayette, young 
Alexander Hamilton, the master of ceremonies, charming 
Lady Kitty Stirling and her cousins, the Livingston girls, 
and many other noted figures, as we strain our ears to listen 
to the ghostly tinkle of the old-time wedding-music. 

Great was the courage and daring of the patriotic 
people of those days, when any festivity, unless enjoyed 
in secret, was as liable as not to bring a band of marau- 
ders to the door. About a fortnight after the ceremony 
the British did learn of the Boudinot-Smith wedding, 
and the house was visited by a party of soldiers, who, 
upon learning of the absence of the bridegroom, spite- 
fully destroyed the fine furniture and family portraits, 
some of them painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller. They 
so terrified the young bride on this occasion that her hus- 
band took her to Newark, where at the close of the 
war he built a great mansion. In after years, when he 
had become a famous lawyer and a judge of the Supreme 
Court, he entertained the aged Marquis de Lafayette, on 
his second visit to America, the venerable widow of Alex- 
ander Hamilton, Henry Clay, and many other noted people. 

The old Belcher Mansion, has known few vicis- 
situdes, with the exception of the raid and those occa- 
sioned by the ruthless hand of time. It is now in ex- 
cellent condition, having been restored and beautified 
by its present owner, Mr. Warren R, Dix, a descendant 
of the noted Chevalier D'Anterroches,* a resident of 

* Joseph Louis Chevalier D'Anterroches, or Count D'Anterroches, as 
his tombstone in St. John's church-yard, Elizabeth, records, was a most 
romantic and interesting figure in New Jersey's Revolutionary history. 

124 



THE BELCHER MANSION 



Elizabethtown. In the possession of the Dix family 
is a beautiful old brocade gown, in almost perfect con- 
dition, which belonged to Mrs. Jonathan Edwards, who 
visited at the Belcher Mansion over a hundred years ago. 
It is a worthy rival of the Boudinot wedding-gown,* 

His father was Jean Pierre, Count D'Anterroches, and his mother was 
Lady Jeanne Fran^oise Tessier de Chaunae, a near relative and probably 
a cousin of Madame de Lafayette. As he was a younger son, his parents 
destined him for the priesthood, and he was sent to the churchly house 
of his uncle, Alexander Cassar D'Anterroches, Bishop of Comdon, as 
a youth, to prepare for a clerical life. The restraint there and his duties 
became very irksome to his buoyant temperament, and he ran away to 
England and joined her army. Arriving in America as a British ensign, 
in 1777, his sympathies were soon on the side of the Colonists, and he 
is said to have regretted his wilful precipitancy which had placed him in 
such a peculiar position. About the time of the battle of Saratoga he 
was taken prisoner by the Americans. At his capture he sent for pen 
and paper and wrote to Lafayette. The marquis came to him post 
haste, and they fell into each others arms and embraced with rapture. 

Joseph Louis was soon released on parole, and, having obtained his 
freedom, immediately set out to lose his heart. 

The story of his meeting with the maiden who afterwards became 
his wife, near the Chatham or Passaic bridge is almost as poetic as the 
gallant Bassompierre's adventure with his washer-girl near the Petit Pont 
on the road to Fontainebleau, only this Frenchman of a later day found 
his fair lady again and made her his wife. 

The house where he lived, in Elizabethtown, is still standing, and 
was known to past generations as the Malherbes Mansion, having been 
erected by a Monsieur Malherbes, of Martinique. 

* The wedding-gown worn by Kate Smith was also used by her 
daughter, Catherine Boudinot, on the occasion of her marriage to Lewis 
Atterbury, of New York. Later it was the bridal-robe of her daughter, 
Mrs. Stimson, and was last worn by Mrs. Stimson's daughter, Mrs. 
Loomis. It is still in existence, but entirely changed from its original 
appearance. 

125 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

still in existence, and worn by the brides of that family 
for four generations. It is the most precious link left to 
that far-off war-time wedding, when so many notable 
guests assembled in the old home, once the delightful 
abode of Jersey's most noble royal governor. 



126 



HAMPTON PLACE 

ELIZABETH 

WHERE GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT RETIRED WHEN 
THERE WERE NO MORE WORLDS TO CONQUER 




HE house best loved by the 
old residents of Elizabethtown 
is the Scott House, often re- 
ferred to as Hampton Place. 
For many years, during intervals 
sometimes short and sometimes 
lengthy, it was the home of Gen- 
eral Winfield Scott, the greatest 
American general of his day. It was erected at about the 
same time as the neighboring mansion on Scott Place, 
but owing to a few alterations in its structure in the latter 
part of General Scott's life, it does not impress the casual 
observer with any great antiquity. Without a history 
it might not secure a passing glance. It could best 
be described, like the " shy looking house" in " Barnaby 
Rudge," as " not very straight, not large, not tall ; not 
boldfaced with great staring windows, but a shy, blinking 
house, with a conical roof going up into a peak over the 
garret window of four small panes of glass, like the 
cocked hat on the head of an elderly gentleman of 
one eye." 

Dr. Barnet, a surgeon in the American army, was 

127 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



the first occupant. He is credited with introducing vac- 
cination into the town. From what can be learned of 
him he had many patients who were subject to his whim- 
whams and humors. It is related that when the British 
raided his home, on the day they were seeking the 
bridegroom at the Belcher Mansion, they took a fine 
string of red peppers from his fireplace, and he be- 
moaned their loss more than his broken furniture and 
smashed mirrors. There is also another amusing tra- 
dition that the patient who disturbed him, when in a 
crotchety mood, for some imagined ailment was as lia- 
ble to receive a box on the ear as a phial of medi- 
cine. In Dr. Barnet's time the willow-trees which for- 
merly surrounded the house were planted. They were 
slips from a tree at " La Grange," and were brought 
from abroad by his nephew when on a continental tour. 
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the house 
was sold to Colonel John Mayo, of Virginia, the father 
of Mrs. Scott. Elizabethtown, like Newark, was then 
a great summer resort for Southerners, and the colonel, 
a true exponent of the elegant aristocracy of Richmond, 
kept open house for the neighborhood. His equipages 
were always finer, his family's clothes more costly, and 
their style of living grander than those of any of his 
friends, and like the gentlemen of the old Southern type, 
he lived and died satisfied. In those summers of the 
long ago Mrs. Scott and her sisters daily went to a little 
French school in a house near the creek, now destroyed, 
then presided over by Madame Topray, a beautiful 
French refugee, whose romance, if she had one, is for- 
gotten. The women among those old French refugees 

128 




y" 



HAMPTON PLACE 



of Elizabethtown have all come down to us as fair and 
beautiful, and they flit through its unrecorded pages like 
the scents of lavender or rose-leaves clinging to old gar- 
ments, — faint, but very sweet indeed. We know they 
were welcomed and found peace there, for in St. John's 
church-yard there is one headstone that shelters the bones 
of the Demoiselle Julie du Buc de Marencille, born in 
the island of Martinique, whose brother recommends the 
care of her tomb to the " hospitable inhabitants" of the 
town. 

Although Mrs. Scott blossomed to womanhood in 
Elizabethtown, and spent some of the first years of her 
married life there with her dashing husband, it is with a 
later period that she is always associated, — those lonely 
stretches of years when he was away on the fields of 
battle, and the glad time when he came home to join 
her for good, like Alexander, with no more worlds to 
conquer. 

We are wont to revert to the scenes of earlier years 
in old age, and there are many who walked the shady 
streets of Elizabethtown in the days when the South's 
secession was being talked over who retain in their mem- 
ories the picture of a tall old gentleman of command- 
ing figure, with white locks gleaming from under his 
hat and an army coat thrown over one shoulder, shaking 
his head sadly to groups of friends at the street corners, 
and saying, " It will never do ! It will never do !" 

General Scott was very fond of society, and rarely sat 
down to a meal without company. During his periods 
of residence at Hampton Place the visitors' roll con- 
tained names representing celebrities from all over the 
9 129 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

country and abroad, who journeyed to gaze on the 
laurel-crowned hero. He was always very fond of the 
conversation of intelligent and refined women, and was 
especially gallant and courteous to old ladies. From 
the time of his young manhood, when touring abroad 
and meeting the aged Lady Frankland, our own Rebecca 
Franks, one of the Tory belles of the Meschianza, to 
whom his graceful compliments were so pleasing, until 
his death, he was a maker of pretty speeches. These 
were the more appreciated by their recipients, as the 
general opinion was that his manners were rather gruff, 
owing to a haughty nervous temperament which never 
bore contradiction with any show of compliance. A 
story illustrating his gallantry is related of a lady, the 
widow of one of his former aides, that once, on receiving 
the same compliment he had paid her on many occasions, 
— " Madam, you are as beautiful as the morning," — she 
smilingly replied, " Nay, general, you are a flatterer, for 
your sun never gets any higher or lower, — wrinkles and 
dim eyes go best, unfortunately, with the evening." 

General Scott was a loyal son of his native State, 
Virginia, and to a chance visitor at Hampton Place, 
who asked if he was born in New England, he is 
said to have shown the door. The lovely Virginia 
belles who used to adorn his balcony the last summer he 
spent in Ehzabeth, before his retirement from the army 
at the outbreak of the Civil War, are still talked of by 
old Elizabethans. To enter his heart one only needed to 
talk of old Dinwiddle County, whose every product he 
lauded above all others. He was very fond of his 
horses and dogs, and quite fitting for the final words of a 

130 



HAMPTON PLACE 



soldier and a true Virginian was his last whispered mes- 
sage to his old coachman before death robbed America 
of its greatest general at the West Point Hotel in the 
spring of 1866, — "Peter, take good care of my horse." 
Among the other distinguished occupants of Hamp- 
ton Place in later years was Mr. Archibald Gracie, son 
of the old New York merchant of that name. The 
Gracies were related to the King family, of Highwood, 
and President Charles King of Columbia College was a 
warm friend and frequent visitor of General Scott. Its 
last owner for a number of years has been Mr. R. W. 
Woodward, to whose unfailing kindness and interest in 
its history many a frequenter of Elizabeth is indebted. 



131 



THE FRANKLIN PALACE 

PERTH AMBOY 

WHERE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PLEADED WITH HIS 
SON TO ESPOUSE THE CAUSE OF THE COLONISTS 




WEET Perth Town, as the 
r early proprietors of East Jersey- 
used to write of their capital in 
documents now musty, still 
holds on its venerable streets 
many old houses worthy c'. 
notice. Perhaps the most in- 
teresting to the stranger who 
visits this slumbering city, is the Palace erected by the 
Lord Proprietors for His Excellency William Franklin, 
captain-general and governor-in-chief of the Province of 
New Jersey. This was begun in 1764, and was first 
occupied by this brilliant son of one of America's greatest 
men, Benjamin Franklin, in 1774. 

It was fitting that the last of New Jersey's royal gov- 
emors should be the most royal of all in the matter of 
lavish expenditure. During his brief occupancy of the 
Palace, before the storm of the Revolution burst on his 
startled ears, he exceeded all his predecessors in the 
grandeur of his entertainments, — the delight of the 
Royalist aristocracy, which left Perth Amboy in almost 



a body after the war. 



132 



THE FRANKLIN PALACE 



Gazing at this massive pile, — a true memory of the 
Georges, — situated on its commanding height, from which 
can be seen a glorious stretch of woodland and the smooth 
flowing waters of the Raritan entering the Arthur Kull 
Sound, where the notorious Captain Kidd once sailed his 
black-flagged galley, we are entranced by the charm of 
long-dead yesterdays, and our minds grow retrospective 
as we wander back in the years to the Perth Amboy of 
William Franklin's day. 

In the year 1763 the young governor, then in his 
thirtieth year, " a handsome and witty specimen of man- 
hood," as one of his friends has pictured him, reached 
the city from New Brunswick one cold February day, 
escorted by the Middlesex troop of horse and some of 
the Perth Amboy gentry in sleighs. 

The New York Gazette chronicles that he took pos- 
session of the government " in the usual form," the 
ceremony being conducted " with as much decency and 
good decorum as the season could possibly permit of." It 
is recorded that he immediately hired one of the best 
houses in town, at an annual rental of sixty pounds, and 
there he lived some time. He is said to have mourned 
over the fact that Perth Amboy was so far from Phila- 
delphia, as the long distance cut off intercourse with 
many of his intimates. After weighing the matter, he de- 
cided to remove to Burlington, where he resided perma- 
nently until 1774, when he came back to Amboy to 
live in the Palace which the generous proprietors had 
built for him.* 

* Until Governor Franklin's arrival it w^as occupied by Chief Justice 
Smyth. 

133 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

During Governor Franklin's first residence in the city 
there are traditions that many of the most blue-blooded 
of the gentry were anything but cordial to him, there 
having been much ill feeling over his appointment. It 
is said that he was openly flouted in public and at the 
assemblies, and the tale of his illegitimate birth was often 
whispered behind his back. But when he arrived at the 
governor's Palace, almost ten years later, everything was 
changed. Everywhere he was greeted with open arms 
and friendly demonstrations, for the Tory city felt secure 
in having a ruler who was so loyal in his allegiance to 
his king, and their attentions to the governor made those 
last months of British supremacy in America among the 
most brilliant in the social history of old Amboy. 

Those were the days of pomp and elegant ceremony. A 
few years ago in the attics of many old residences there 
were great silk-lined chests and iron-clamped trunks ot 
uncertain age, garnished with grotesque cupids, roses, and 
what-nots, since gone to antique-hunters, whose moth- 
eaten contents of eighteenth-century finery could have 
told us many an interesting tale if they were gifted with 
the power of speech. What antiquarian would not 
have enjoyed hearing of the sylvan revels at " Love 
Grove," that portion of Amboy Point which the pro- 
prietors described as being " covered with grass growing 
luxuriantly, the forest trees as distributed in groups, di- 
versifying the landscape with light and shade, and all 
nature wearing the fresh aspect of a new creation." 
There the picturesque governor and his court, dressed 
like a group of old Dresden figures, would come to watch 
the frolics of the populace, while the wind chanted low 

134 



THE FRANKLIN PALACE 



songs among the great tree-tops, and twilight softly stained 
the water. Then the theatrical performances in the town 
hall or on the lawn of the Palace, the dances and card- 
parties ; with slow-moving minuets and many formali- 
ties. Almost uncanny the brocade and silken gowns 
feel if lifted from their tombs of must, flavored with 
forgotten India scents and long dead flowers. Each 
could tell us a story no doubt. One may have seen 
the fair dame old mother gossip says tried to steal the 
heart of the governor away from his good lady. 
Another may have been present at one of the din- 
ner-parties at the Palace to which the guests were 
bidden on little slips of paper* three inches long and 
four inches wide. And still another may have been 
worn solely to charm the governor's blue eyes, which 
looked ever kindly on the fair sex. But it seems almost 
a sacrilege to dream over them. The hands that put 
them together have been folded these hundred years, and 
the ones that wore them are not even memories. 

To the Palace, shortly after his return from abroad, in 
1775, Benjamin Franklin, then the great statesman and 
scientist, journeyed to persuade his son to withdraw from 
the royal cause. Though we do not approve of the 
son's course, we cannot help admiring the fidelity shown 
under the battery of such a master of eloquence, for 

* One of Governor Franklin's dinner invitations is in the possession 
of the New Jersey Historical Society, at Newark. It is thought to be a 
Burlington invitation. It reads : 

"The Governor and Mrs. Franklin present their compliments to 
Mrs. and Miss Campbell, and Desire the Pleasure of their Company to 
Dinner To-morrow, Friday morning." 

135 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

he declared he would rise or fall by the British gov- 
ernment in America. His father threatened, stormed, 
and expostulated with him to no purpose ; and failing 
to convince him of the impropriety of his conduct, 
left him a saddened man. He grieved continually over 
his failure to show his son the error of his ways, and 
later wrote in a letter to a friend the saddest words a 
father could pen, — " I am deserted by my only son." 

In the first days of the following year a letter written 
by the governor to the Earl of Dartmouth, declaring 
that he could not speak confidentially to his subordinates 
on government affairs, was intercepted by Lord Stirling, 
and led to the adoption of measures by that ofBcer to 
prevent his chief's escape, although history gives no 
evidence of his having formed such an intention. He 
was virtually placed under arrest, but through the solici- 
tation of the chief justice of the Province was per- 
suaded to give his parole, and for some months continued 
to occupy the Palace in Perth Amboy and exercise 
nominally the duties of his station. Later, having re- 
ceived advices from the mother-country which he thought 
warranted the immediate attention of the assembly, he 
issued a proclamation convening that body, which greatly 
excited Congress, and led to the seizure of his person 
shortly afterwards. Tradition asserts that he was made a 
prisoner in one of the upper-story rooms of his Palace 
by a detachment of militia commanded by Major Deale, 
who had him led off to Burlington, " tearing him from 
wife and family," as he wrote in a highly indignant letter 
to the assembly, in which he also " thanked God for 
spirit enough to face the danger." 

136 



THE FRANKLIN PALACE 



When the governor's coach and guard had disappeared 
down the road, Mrs. Frankh'n started her women to 
packing the contents of the great rooms ; and later, when 
the British were in possession of New York, most of 
her effects were safely shipped to that place. 

After the poor lady and her servants had left Perth 
Amboy, where she had spent the first and last years of 
her married life, the Palace became the head-quarters for 
any British general happening to be in the vicinity. 
On its wide lawns, where the governor had given his 
garden-parties to the aristocracy, detachments of regi- 
ments, graceful grenadiers, stalwart Hessians, and High- 
landers in native costume constantly paraded. 

Shortly after the war its interior was destroyed by fire, 
and it was sold to John Rattoone, who restored and 
enlarged it. Early in the new century it was purchased 
by a syndicate, which added a wing to the south side of 
the building and established a hotel under the name of 
the Brighton House. For a few years it was much fre- 
quented by the wealth and fashion of the country, but it 
lost its popularity at the beginning of the War of i8i2. 
Joseph Bonaparte at one time cast a favorable eye on it 
for his American home, and spent several days at Com- 
modore Lewis's negotiating for its purchase, where he 
left a substantial present in the shape of a crown and 
necklace of pearls and topazes for the family's kindness. 
He could not secure the house and lands of the Paterson 
family, then owned by Andrew Bell,* which shut off 

* Mrs. Andrew Bell is remembered by several of the long residents 
of Perth Amboy. In the latter part of her life she became an invalid, 
and rarely left her curtained bed, vi^hich stood in one of the lower rooms 

137 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

his view of the river, and he is said to have left Perth 
Amboy for Trenton in one of his GalUc rages over 
what he deemed Mr. Bell's unkindness in refusing to 
part with his home and lands. 

In later years the house and large estates came into 
the possession of Matthias Bruen, whose ghost, according 
to the tale of one of his superstitious decendants, used to 
haunt the great Palace made famous by so much good 
company. Promptly at twelve o'clock the rumbling 
wheels of a coach would be heard coming up the drive- 
way, the sycamore-trees would sway and moan, the dogs 
would bay, the doors throughout each floor would creak, 
and the heavy hall one fly open to welcome its ghostly 
master. This phantom gentleman in life is said never 
to have carried a penny on his person, and always made 
payment in checks, even when purchasing a " bunch of 
bass or pickerel" from the fish-venders of old Amboy. 

It was inherited by Dr. Alexander M. Bruen, who 
gave it to the Board of Relief of the Presbyterian Church 
in 1 883. For fifty years it is to be the home of disabled 
Presbyterian clergymen and their families, and after that 
can be disposed of by the board. Although it has lost 
much of its grand appearance, it is still a palace, and to 
the travelled lovers of old Perth Town one of the most 
interesting in the world. 

of the present beautiful Paterson mansion. Every child in Perth Amboy 
of her day knew her •' white almond jar," which her black maid was 
always commanded to get out to regale her little visitors. 



138 



KEARNY COTTAGE 

PERTH AMBOY 



WHERE «' MADAM SCRIBBLERUS" TAUGHT CAP- 
TAIN JAMES LAWRENCE OF "DON'T GIVE UP 
THE SHIP" FAME THE LOVE OF POETRY 




:LMOST under the shade of the 
great FrankUn Palace is quaint 
little Kearny Cottage, nestling 
like a sparrow under the wing 
of an eagle. It was erected 
about 1780 by Michael Kearny, 
and is still occupied by a mem- 
ber of his family, — a thing not 
unusual in this old township a decade or two ago. 
Up to the time of the Civil War, life there was closely 
run on the lines of an old English village, — the woollen- 
draper's daughter never thinking of speaking first to the 
lawyer's wife, — and the equality among the classes which 
now reigns was then a thing unknown. 

The Kearnys belonged to the Irish gentry, and soon 
after their arrival at the ancient capital became one of the 
important families of the place. Members of one of 
the younger branches left there some time previous to 
Governor Franklin's rule and established themselves on 
a narrow jetty of land farther down the coast. They 
called it Kearny-Port, now corrupted to Keyport. These 

139 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



Kearnys, of Kearny Castle, Kearny-Port, of which 
one-time elegant residence only a small portion remains, 
were socially prominent in New York as well as in the 
Jerseys. At the former place one of the younger sons, 
Major James Kearny, wedded the beautiful mother of 
Philip Freneau, the poet of the Revolution.* It is to 
this Mrs. Kearny, nee Freneau, who carefully preserved 
her letters and papers, that we are indebted for a few 
pleasing glimpses of the first mistress of the Kearny 
Cottage, — Mrs. Michael Kearny (Elizabeth Lawrence), 
better known to Perth Amboy and the hterary world 
of her day as " Madam Scribblerus." She sometimes 
signed herself " Pinderina," in the romantic fashion of 
the period, when writing to the press or to her intimate 
friends, who included the most prominent people of cul- 
ture in the young republic. 

This interesting figure, whose little rush-light of renown 
long ago flickered out, was a daughter of Judge Law- 
rence, of Burlington, and a half-sister of Captain James 
Lawrence of " Don't give up the ship" fame,-j- for whom 

* Agnes Watson, a Jersey beauty, married Pierre Freneau, of New 
York, in 1748, and became the mother of Philip Freneau, the poet of 
the Revolution, four years later. The Freneau mansion, on Frankfort 
Street, was one of the fashionable resorts of the early French society of 
New York City. As early as 1 7 1 6 the family is recorded as promi- 
nent in the city, and it is several times mentioned in the interesting 
journal of John Fontaine, a kinsman of the celebrated Commodore Maury. 

-j- The house where Elizabeth Lawrence (Madam Scribblerus) lived 
as a girl is still standing in Burlington, at the corner of Main and 
Library Streets, and is now the residence of Mr. James Birch. Cap- 
tain James Lawrence was born there, and in later years it became the 
residence of Governor Bloomfield. An old legend is still repeated in 

140 



KEARNY COTTAGE 



she seems to have entertained an ardent affection, not- 
withstanding about fifteen years' disparity in their ages. 
There in the rooms of her cottage, which look so small 
from the outside, but seem to widen mysteriously when 
one enters, she tells us in one of her faded scribbles that 
she taught this future hero the love of poetry. It is in- 
ferior to many of her verses, yet from its interest should 
be preserved. It reads : 

** My brave, brave Jim's a sailor Jack 
Upon the treacherous sea, — 
A sailor who loves poetry 
All taught to him by me." 

It is to be hoped that young Lawrence was pleased 
with this poetic teaching when visiting his sister, of 
whom one of her intimates wrote : " She occupies the 
highest seat on Parnassus." Others in her Perth Amboy 
world did not take their occasional doses of the muse 
at all patiently. Betsey Parker, who lived once over 
at the Parker Castle, wrote to her sister, " Oh, why won't 
Madam Scribblerus stop her scribbling V And her own 
household of growing boys is said to have openly 
scoffed at her effusions. 

But Madam Scribblerus still wrote on, despite the jeers 
of her friends and family ; and she must have ridden her 

Burlington in reference to its occupancy by the Lawrence family. At 
one period of the Revolution, when some British ships were on their 
way to Philadelphia, they fired on Burlington, and a cannon-ball struck 
the building, which was taken as a sign that one of the family would 
die at the hands of the British. In the tragic death of Captain James 
Lawrence the omen or foreshadowing proved true. 

141 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

galloping muse at a rapid pace, if the one unpublished 
volume of her works, still in existence, entitled the 
seventh, is anything like its forerunners. In that, amid a 
chaotic mass of dolorous elegies and the chapters of a 
novel entitled "Altamont and Lothario," written in a 
good imitation of the style of the once famous Madam 
D'Arblay, who set the London world agog when she was 
" Little Burney," there are many references to the current 
events of the time and the coimtry's famous citizens. 

During her girlhood she had spent several winters in 
Philadelphia, and in the first years of her marriage she 
made two or three journeys there to visit old friends. 
Among her intimates were Peggy Chew, a noted Quaker 
City belle who had replaced Honora Sneyd in Major 
Andre's affections, the famous Shippen sisters, and " the 
dazzling Mrs. Bingham." The latter, a bright star in 
the American social world after the Revolution, was 
made the subject of some very witty and animated 
verses entitled, — 

"LINES ON MRS. BINGHAM'S RECALL OF A 
SUPPER INVITATION 

" Just in from the country, with nothing to wear. 
At Bingham's to-night I am bidden repair. 
My one silken pelisse is all in a tangle. 
And I know I have lost my Parisian bangle. 
Not a whif of hair-powder to light up my head — 
Methinks 'twould be better to get into bed ! 
My slippers the parrot has quite eaten up — 
Oh ! why am I bidden to come in to sup ? 
Now, Rebecca, do try make that child stop its wailing ; 
At the thought of the company courage is failing ! 
142 



KEARNY COTTAGE 



There's a chair going past and a coach with a clatter. 

If I go as I am — pray, what does it matter ? 

Here give me some Rose-Bloom to ease up my face. 

And a patch on my chin would give it a grace. 

My new brilliant necklace, my white turkey wrapping ; 

Ah, now I am ready ; but who is that tapping ? 

A word from the Binghams — you say a postponement : 

An illness — alas, 'tis a hurried atonement. 

With nothing to wear, and nothing to eat ! 

Come blow out the candles and gaze on the street." 

To Mr. and Mrs. E. Pennington of the same city- 
she addressed this poem on their marriage : 

"TO THE PENNINGTON'S ON THEIR MARRIAGE 

'* May you like Isaac and Rebecca live. 
And each receive the happiness you give. 
No clouds arise to make your prospects dark. 
No winds, tempestuous, adverse toss your barque. 
Nor slander by the fiend-like envy led 
O'er you, my friends, her sooty pinions spread. 
Nor Jealousy (the Lovers' Hell) e'er find 
You to her baleful whisperings inclin'd — 
But may you smoothly pass the stream of life. 
One a fond Husband, One a loving Wife ; 
And when you go your great reward to claim 
Your children heir your fortune and your fame." 

Major Andre's lamentable death created much sadness in 
the larger portion of homes in the colonies. Everywhere 
tears were shed over his sad fate. His charming person- 
ality and romantic career ending in so gruesome a tragedy 
made a strong appeal to the heart and the imagina- 
tion. Many Tory households decorated their front doors 

143 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

with mourning emblems, and laudatory odes to the de- 
parted Andre appeared in all the newspapers. Miss Anna 
Seward, of Litchfield, England, a foster-sister of Honora 
Sneyd,* Major Andre's first love, startled the reading 
world of the day with her " Monody on the Death of 
Major Andre." Old Amboy society went into ecstacies 
over its pathos, and Madam Scribblerus, emulating her 
example, wrote : 

''THOUGHTS ON READING MISS SEWARD'S 
MONODY 

** Could I like Seward touch the plaintive string. 
Like her could I of worth departed sing, 
I'd join her, and a funeral- wreath prepare 
To deck her much lamented Andre's Bier. 
But she does not my feeble aid require, — 
The muses, jointly, her thoughts inspire. 
For each prevailing subject of the breast 
By fullest force of language is expressed. 
Who e'er unmoved her monody does hear. 
And reads, yet drops no tributary-tear. 
Are (if they then their passions can control) 
Dead to the finest feelings of the Soul — 
Strong as her friendship is ' The vestal fire. 
Which guides the world to Andre's hallowed Pyre,' 



* Honora Sneyd was the adopted daughter of Mr. Seward, a canon of 
the cathedral at Litchfield. He resided with his family at the bishop's 
palace, and there Major, Andre visited them. Miss Seward, in her 
"IV'Ionody on the Death of Major Andre," insinuated that Honora 
Sneyd jilted Andre. Richard Lovell Edgeworth in his Memoirs denies 
this. He married the lady in July, 1773, two years after Major 
Andre had given up his mercantile business and obtained a commission 
in the army. Richard Lovell Edgeworth was the father of Maria 
Edgeworth. 

144 



KEARNY COTTAGE 



Its sacred flame, shone warmly on her heart, 
And did each power of harmony impart. 
Lives by no circumscribing bounds confin'd. 
But fully show'd the tumult of her mind." 

Madam Scribblerus was a frequent contributor to 
the Time Piece, a tri-weekly literary journal conducted 
by Philip Freneau in New York. It was a rival of the 
Porcupine Gazette* edited by William Cobbet, who 
was praised by the cultured people of the day for the 
beauty and simplicity of his style. Philip Freneau 
during the time he controlled the Time Piece had many 
female literary aspirants corresponding with him, and his 
office was often thronged with applicants, some fair and 
some grotesque, who came to seek his favor in person. 
It is not known whether Madam Scribblerus ever 
journeyed to New York to see him, but she was 
one of the most voluminous of his correspondents. 
Through the medium of his sheet she carried on a merry 
war with a writer who hid under the pseudonym of 
" Duncan Downwright." She frequently visited at 
Mount Pleasant Hall, Freneau's Monmouth home, and 
in several of the books formerly comprised in his 
library there her autograph is found under his own and 
that of his brother Peter Freneau. 

Many of Madam Scribblerus's letters are in exist- 

* Philip Freneau's London publisher, John Russell Smith, Soho 
Square, writing of the Time Piece and its rival the Porcupine Gazette, 
says, "If Cobbet discharged any of his porcupine quills at Freneau, it 
is most probable they were promptly returned : for he was ' always 
as ready to return a blow with a pen as with a sword, the former being 
as sharp as the latter.' " 

10 145 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

ence to-day. In the following one she shows offence at 
some of the remarks of one of the contributors to the 
Time Piece, and it is a good sample of her style of 
correspondence. It reads : 

<' To M"^ Philip Freneau. — 

"Indeed Sir I am quite done over by Caroline's smart retort to my 
letter, Duncan Downright' s address to the duncified tribe, I was sen- 
sibly hurt to see that Caroline had so misunderstood my sentiments in 
regard to her. Duncan's opinion I more easily submit to, as it may 
have a better foundation. The sensations which I experienced when 
reading them, were so unpleasant as to make me determine, that from 
that time forward, I would disclaim all with Thalia, and as Sterne says, 
'set up for wisdom,' and utter grave sentences for the rest of my days. 

** It has added to my timidity, in regard to the publication of my 
manuscript ; for if I shrink from so slight a public censure, how shall I 
stand a more general one ? 

** If you think fit give the enclosed a place in the Time Piece. 
" I am, 

" Sir, 

** Your hum**'* serv't 

'♦ P. SCRIBBLERUS. " 

Another, addressed to editors Freneau and Davis, in 
which she has taken greater offence at " Duncan Down- 
right," contains some paragraphs intimating that she 
would have been an exponent of " women's rights" if 
she had lived in this century. After a volley of a supe- 
rior sort of " Billingsgate," she says, — 

"I wish that some of your male correspondents would be so obliging 
as to give us a short Treatise on the Rights of women, that it may be 
ascertained whether we may again claim the indulgence which you had 
obligingly granted us of sometimes publishing a few paragraphs in the 

146 



KEARNY COTTAGE 



Time Piece, or whether we must patiently submit to having it wrested 
from us, and to be called, without any palliating exception — Dunces. 
This being an age in which all ranks of people are contending for their 
Rights, I think we may reasonably be informed how far ours are per- 
mitted to extend. 

<' As Duncan says you shall hear no more from him on the subject, 
we may yet assert one of our privileges which is universally allowed to 
us, that of having the last word." 

But this was not Madam Scribblerus's last word to 
the troublesome " Duncan Downright" by any means, 
for she later vented her spleen upon him in some very 
amusing verses, which begin : 

*• How now, Mr. Duncan, with your hicking and huffing. 
Do you think. Sir, we' 11 take all this kicking and cuffing ? 
Unless you draw in your horns, and your manners soon mend. 
Perhaps the Tribe, Sir, will give as good as you send." 

Poor Madam Scribblerus ! we can picture her to 
ourselves working away with her goose-quill pen in her 
little Amboy cottage, far into the night, with only a 
primitive candle to light her labors. Many and many 
a tired reveller, leaving those famous Brighton House 
balls in their heyday at the old Franklin Palace long 
before 1812 brought gloom and war, must have stopped 
before the light casting its glow from her chamber win- 
dow and been cheered by the thought that some one was 
awake as he faced the darkness of old Amboy lanes and 
alleys. The blue-stockinged Pinderina never looked 
with favor on those merry affairs where the conviviality 
often exceeded the bounds of the most proper decorum. 
Her "beloved Michael" died a few years before their 

147 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



advent, and she had no desire to don her rich pink bro- 
cade wedding-gown and appear again in society. The 
idea of constancy after death she cherished with touching 
faithfulness. Upon every anniversary of his departure 
from this life she dedicated poems of two or three hundred 
verses to his memory. Those were sorry occasions for 
Amboy I The neglectful ones who evaded her cottage 
did so with fear and trembling. They were pretty 
sure of indignant visits from her, or worse still, her far- 
reaching pen was capable of dealing them swift retri- 
bution. 

In the last years of the eighteenth century, during our 
breach with France, Madam Scribblerus conceived a 
violent aversion for everything French. Other Perth 
Amboy dames might look to France for their manners 
and their gewgaws, but she "detested" the nation. 
Taking the matter to heart, she set about to improve the 
perverted taste of the town, and hurled several bom- 
bastic poems at the " frog-eaters." The following one, 
written at the beginning of Jefferson's administration, is 
a good example of them : 

"AN EPIGRAM 

" Says William to Thomas I'll hold you a bet 
That the French are confoundedly frighted ; 
They thought they our Federal Ships had o'erset. 
But they find that they staunch are, and righted. 

"They slighted our Pleno's and made a demand 
That we a shameful Tribute should pay them. 
Or else (as they plundered at Sea) on the Land 
Neither Rapine nor Murder should stay them! 
148 



KEARNY COTTAGE 



" But those who are born in the woods can't be scared 
By the croaking of Bull-frogs in ditches. 
Nor will we of Frenchmen at all be afraid, 
A people who' re sans honor, sans breeches. 

"They've taken our coats from our backs, and say too 
That they will have our shirts and our smocks, sir ; 
But faith if they try it the project they'll rue. 

For we'll give them some flesh-burning knocks, sir ! 

** They've tried ev'ry art which deception could frame. 

But our Congress too wise were to heed them. 

They've Heaven defied, and have put aside shame. 

And have gone all lengths the £)^r/7 would lead them." 

Little of Elizabeth Kearny's work ever saw the light 
of the press, and it is sad to think much that would have 
interested posterity should have been lost when the 
original manuscript was destroyed. Although apart 
from Philip Freneau, Joel Barlow, and Timothy and 
Theodore Dwight, the four most noted disciples of 
American literature of the time, she deserves a small 
place in the history of our belles-lettres. In her own 
Perth Amboy she was a much lauded celebrity and had 
her large group of admirers. These were the solace of a 
life adversity had narrowed and blighted when in its full 
bloom. Their praise to her ears was the world's sweetest 
lullaby. When surrounded by them she forgot the 
whispers of carping care and smiled with Calliope. 

Among the most interesting poems in her seventh 
volume of manuscript verses, preserved by Mrs. James 
Kearny, are " Lines to a Cask of Cider in Imitation of 
Mr. Philip Freneau on a Jug of Rum," " Lines on the 

149 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



Base Kosciusko," and an " Ode to Liberty." Perhaps 
among all her work extant nothing has more charm than 
those four little verses on her half-brother, Captain James 
Lawrence, whom she did not live to see famous and a fit 
subject for her prolific pen. After reading them, trivial 
as they are, one is inclined to give her the sprig of the 
bays she asks for in the lines on the fly-leaf of her book, 
which read : 

" If you think a reward is due for my Lays, 
Pray give me a very small sprig of the Bays ; 
But w^ritings like mine I'm afraid do not claim 
One leaf from a Tree which is sacred to fame." 



ISO 



THE BARTOW HOUSE 

PERTH AMBOY 



WHERE THE ART HISTORIAN WILLIAM 
DUNLAP DID HIS FIRST DRAWINGS 





i 

i 


P 


!*M^ 


h^^ 



HE next residence to the cottage 
of Madame Scribblerus in an- 
tiquity and interest is the ven- 
erable dweUing so well loved by 
all old Amboy residents as the 
abode of the Smith family, after 
whom Smith Street is named. 
This old house has a large 
share of romantic interest in being the home of the 
queer and eccentric Thomas Bartow, a gentleman of 
wealth and culture, whose friendship for the youthful 
William Dunlap in the days before the Revolution is 
said to have laid the foundation of the artistic knowledge 
which eventually made him one of New York City's 
most famous theatrical managers and art-critics. 

Thomas Bartow at that time, just before the Revolu- 
tion, was a very old man. Dunlap himself in after years 
described him as " a small, thin old man, with straight 
gray hair hanging in comely guise on each side of his 
pale face." Tradition says that owing to some mystery 
in connection with the wrong he had done a woman 
in youth he lived in strict seclusion, no females but his 

151 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



relatives and a black woman as venerable as himself ever 
crossing his threshold. But perhaps his relatives made 
amends for the rest of the fair sex, for he had many, and 
interesting ones. First of all in the white light of history- 
stands his lovely niece, Theodosia Prevost, afterwards 
Mrs. Aaron Burr. She was the daughter of his brother, 
Theodosius Bartow, who married Ann Stilwell. He was 
a lawyer and native of Shrewsbury, New Jersey, and 
it was there that the woman whose charm excelled that 
of every other member of her sex, according to Burr, 
passed her early youth until she was wooed and won by 
Captain Frederick Prevost, a relative of Lieutenant- 
General Sir George Prevost, Baronet. She must have 
often visited the old gentleman with her mother, Mrs. 
Philip de Visme,* for he left her in his will " one hun- 
dred pounds in Spanish mill'd dollars, at eight shillings 
each, for the use of her children," which was a large 
legacy.f Then there were the five daughters of his 

* Theodosius Bartow died shortly before the birth of his child, whom 
he wished named after himself; but as she was a female, she was called 
Theodosia. His widow married Philip de Visme, of a noble French 
family, and the two families, De Visme and Provost, resided during the 
Revolution in the " Little Hermitage" at Hokokus, New Jersey. There 
Lieutenant-Colonel Burr became acquainted with them while stationed in 
the vicinity. He married Theodosia Provost, then in the height of her 
charms, in the Dutch Church, a mile or so distant, 
■j- Among the bequests in his will are the following : 
"To William Dunlap, son of Saml. Dunlap of Perth Amboy the 
sum of fifty pounds — towards placing of him to a merchant, or such 
other calling as his parents or guardians think fit. 

<'To William Burnet — a gold ring for a remembrance, of the value 
of a guinea. 

152 



THE BARTOW HOUSE 



brother Theophllus, who resided in Westchester County, 
New York, and his sister, Margaret Pell, besides all his 
httle grandnieces. 

In his house, large for one solitary man, he lived a 
quiet life In the midst of a treasure collection of books 
and prints, added to on the arrival of every one of those 
old-time English and French merchantmen which put In 
at Amboy. It Is not hard to realize how the bright-faced 
boy who dwelt close by at first attracted him as his little 
nankeen-clad figure passed his windows or looked long- 
ingly Into his garden, and then, as he grew to know him, 
crept Into his heart. There in that old garden, still beau- 
tiful in summer, under the many shading fruit-trees and 
surrounded by bright flowers, they together used to 
look over the plays of Otway, Foote, Banks, Farquhar, 
and many other dramatists of the time. Gladly the 
youthful Dunlap would listen to the tales of the London 
world Bartow had once known, of Drury Lane and the 
great actresses, the fair Mrs. Pope as Cleopatra, and 
the great Mrs. SIddons as Isabella in " Measure for 
Measure," and very often he tried to sketch a copy 
of some copper-plate the work of Hogarth or a later 
master. 

Dunlap, in writing a chapter on his life in the " HIs- 

"AU my household goods, furnitiu-e utensils and other things 
which I left, and my desk at Thomas Potter's on the sea shore, 
to the daughters of my brother Theophilus, to be divided among 
them in such manner and proportions as their mother shall think 
fit. 

"To my sister Margaret Pell two silver table spoons, six tea spoons, 
and a tea-tongs ; with tea chests and cannisters." 

153 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



tory of the Arts of Design in the United States," says 
of these visits : 

*' It is not irrelevant to dwell upon my visits to this good old gentle- 
man. The happy hours passed with him in his garden, or in walking 
with him, or in our rides might be omitted, but when I found him on 
that Sunday morning when the parson, a regimental chaplain who was 
engaged to bestow his spare time on the Episcopalians at Woodbridge 
and Amboy, was absent from the latter place, when I was received and 
placed by the side of the old gentleman at the stand or table where he 
sat with his books, when after going up-stairs to the book-closet and 
bringing down such volumes as struck my fancy, I received his explana- 
tions of the pictures on the pages ; if these were passed over I should 
omit the happiest moments of my childhood, and of hours which expanded 
my intellect and laid the foundation of my love for books and pictures." 

In the stories of the ancient capital there are other 
pictures of Bartow and his young friend. It is said 
that the old gentleman was a frequent visitor to the 
mineral spring, situated a few miles out of town, and 
whose waters were credited with the medicinal qualities 
of the German Spa. Rude seats had been built around 
it, and there aristocrats of Amboy came by chair or on 
foot in the summer-time. Bartow must have often been 
rudely startled by the appearance of some aristocratic 
dowager, sent there by a tactful physician, or a bevy of 
fair girls on a pleasure excursion ; and no doubt he took 
to his heels on many an occasion. We can see him 
hurrying away in the riding-chair he left in his will to 
Bathsheba, " the widow of my brother Theopilus," with 
little Dunlap, who would rather have remained to see the 
new arrivals, and on the way homeward over the King's 
Highway meeting a party of huntsmen with " Heards 

154 



THE BARTOW HOUSE 



hounds," famous in Amboy and Woodbridge. Of Heard 
himself Dunlap has left us a description, caUing him " a 
dignified and venerable personage in a scarlet coat, black 
jockey-cap, broad leather belt, and hunting-horn." 

Many other tales could the old house tell of aged 
Bartow and his young friend. How the boy, urged on 
by him, went to the great Franklin Palace at the end of 
the street to sketch the comely lady of the last royal 
governor. Of the handsome young officers who some- 
times laughingly sat for him in those sombre days after 
the battles of Trenton and Princeton, when Amboy was 
filled to overflowing with the flower and pick of the 
British army. Of the consolation the old man was to 
him when he endured the great affliction of losing one 
of his eyes, the result of some boyish sport. Of the 
letter he wrote to his friend from Rocky Hill after the 
great conqueror, Washington, permitted him to begin a 
picture of him ; and, last of all, the final glimpse of old 
Bartow and his weeping servants, Robert Fitzharding, a 
bound boy, and his old negress, saying good-by to the 
house they loved so well. The precious books and 
prints are on their way to the Moravian town of Bethle- 
hem, Pennsylvania, where it is said an expectant and 
unacknowledged family awaited him. * 

* Thomas Bartow, in his will, made May 12, 1779, gave his house 
in Perth Amboy to his son Thomas, a resident in Philadelphia. This 
son Thomas married Sarah Benezet, the daughter of Daniel Benezet 
(not Anthony, his brother, as Mr. Whitehead has it). His wife's 
grandfather was John Stephen Benezet, and the family was very rich and 
distinguished. He threw open his large house for Count Zinzindorf 
when he came to America to preach, and greatly aided in establishing 
the Moravian Church in Philadelphia. 

155 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



The Revolution is over, bringing its cruel knowledge 
to many a Royalist household, and yet the birds of 
Amboy sing gayly and the sun shines as brightly as 
ever on good Plenty and her golden horn on the knocker 
of the old homestead as Bartow in his chaise turns the 
corner and obtains the last glimpse of his Jersey home. 

The next owner of the Bartow House was James 
Hude Kearny. It is with his name, a corner-stone in 
Amboy history, and that of his daughter, Gertrude 
Parker Kearny, who married Charles McKnight Smith, 
that the old house is linked in the minds of the few old 
Amboy famihes now left. 

Charles McKnight Smith, who was a great-grandson 
of William Smith, the first Yale graduate to practise 
law in America, was a physician. A physician in a 
country town before the fifties had to endure more hard- 
ships than his brethren of to-day ever dream of There 
were no steam-engines to facilitate travel then, and the 
doctor and his gig on the highways and lanes of the 
surrounding country, under sun and stars, summer winds 
or the chill blasts of winter, was a heroic figure, but an 
unappreciated one. In the drawing-room of the Bartow 
House, with its old furniture and mellow-tinted rugs, is 
a beautiful portrait of him. He is wearing a great-coat 
and a high white stock, and his eyes seem to be gaz- 
ing out of the room's many windows on the trees 
which guard the quiet streets he knew so well. Streets 
somewhat changed since he hurried over them on his 
errands of mercy, a true physician of the old school. 
Across the room from him hangs the likeness of the sweet- 
faced lady who was his wife. She was a lover of every 

156 



THE BARTOW HOUSE 



inch of Amboy and all its traditions, and it was with her 
help that William Whitehead, the historian, whose great 
work for New Jersey can never be estimated, prepared 
his history of Perth Amboy. In her room, where 
years before Bartow sometimes entertained the youth- 
ful Dunlap, and which echoed to that silvery voice 
of Theodosia Provost, there are preserved her ancient 
curtained bed, the Franklin stove, the empty candle-stick, 
the old gold watch, sent as a present to her father from 
England in the eighteenth century, and all the many 
accessories of a lady of yesterday. 

The quaint panelled dining-room still speaks of her 
presence. The sunbeams that steal in through its little 
casements over the Delft jars filled with growing gera- 
nium plants light up one of the most interesting rooms 
in America. The spindle-legged chairs and tables are 
of a design first made famous by Chippendale. The 
massive iron dogs before the blue-tiled fireplace bear the 
date 1669, and the pieces of plate on the sideboards are 
almost their match in age, many of them having been 
made during the reign of Queen Anne. 

On the green by the house, where the geese of the neigh- 
borhood used to wander, her husband's little office still 
stands. No more can those mute pictures gaze out at 
the patients coming there. The timorous ladies in short 
skirts and tarletans and turbans and sun-bonnets of Paris 
straw, followed by their black girls, almost the way the 
great Mrs. Pepsys used to walk abroad in her London 
of one hundred and fifty years earlier. The door of the 
little house is shut forever, and the gentle ladies of the 
long ago have joined the silent company by St. Peter's. 

157 



THE PARKER CASTLE 

PERTH AMBOY 

WHERE THE ROYALIST SOCIETY OF PERTH AMBOY 
SAID THEIR FAREWELLS AFTER THE REVOLUTION 




NE of the oldest dwellings in 
Perth Amboy is the Parker Cas- 
tle, the stone wing of which is 
said to have been erected over 
a century before the Revolu- 
tion. Eight generations of Par- 
kers have been sheltered beneath 
its venerable roof, and it is still 
occupied by the family, although its environment is 
greatly changed. It is now surrounded by dilapidated 
tenements, the site of its stables occupied by an 
iron foundry, and its once beautiful gardens with 
their picturesque water-front ruined by unsightly fac- 
tories. 

James Parker, one of the most noted members of the 
family of immemorable gentility in New Jersey, and the 
builder of the Castle's large wooden addition somewhere 
about 1760, was a very prominent man in the Amboy 
world Governor William Franklin knew. In 1771 and 
for two years following he was mayor of the city, then 
a position to which was attached great honor and dignity. 
At the outbreak of the Revolution he was appointed one 

158 



THE PARKER CASTLE 



of the delegates to the Provincial Congress, which he did 
not attend, unfortunately for himself, as subsequent 
events in his career prove. Although his wife was a 
Royalist and the daughter of a staunch Tory, — the Rev. 
William Skinner, who history tells us was one of the 
tribe of Macgregor and a friend of the Stuarts, — the deep 
interest he had at stake led him to assume the cloak of 
neutrality and to stand neither beside his king nor his 
adopted country. 

Early in 1775 he left the Castle, and removed with his 
family back into the Jerseys, to a place near Morristown, 
called Bethlehem, where he purchased or built a residence, 
which he called Shipley. There his neighbors, with 
sympathies red hot in the cause of freedom, suspected 
him of being a Royalist, and he was led off to the little 
jail at Morristown, where so many Tories languished 
during different periods of the war. He was incarcer- 
ated for a period of several months, much to the sorrow 
of his wife and children, who wrote him many tender 
letters of consolation. 

Men who did not join the army, no matter how strong 
their protestations of good faith to the colonies, often 
met with as bad treatment as their Tory cousins of more 
pronounced views. A friend and relative of James 
Parker, Ravaud Kearny, then living at his home. Mount 
Wurrows, near Kearny Point, has left us several records 
of his grievances in his letters. In an amusing one, 
written while James Parker was still at Shipley with his 
family, Kearny gives us a vivid portrayal of his injuries. 
The letter was written to Major John Burrowes, of 
Middletown-Point, and begins : 

159 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

"A certain Dragoon belonging to Maj. Lee's Corps, last Friday drove 
two Bull's of mine out of my Field without giving me the least notice 
or Informing me of the Reason ; being very intimate with the Major, 
and his dining at my house but two days before with several of his offi- 
cers, I was certain that if he intended any such thing he would have 
mentioned it to me ; I told the soldier that I believed he had no such 
orders from Maj. Lee and tho' two of our militia men that was with him 
told me in his presence that he had no orders to drive off mine, the 
answer was two or three hearty Dams and he drove them off in triumph. 
... If it is Gen. Washington's orders to take our winter provisions 
I must submit and the matter is determined." 

With a few more protestations against fate and his hard 
usage Kearny closes his letter. Perhaps it was trials like 
these and harsher usage at the hands of the American 
troops that moulded James Parker's children into such 
ardent Royalists, even to the foregoing of pleasures after 
the war was over, out of loyalty to their " dear king." 
Elizabeth, or Betsy Parker, as she was always called in 
old Perth Amboy days, has left us many interesting 
pictures of early republican times in her clever and 
satirical letters to friends. In one, written from New 
York to her sister Janet, in Perth Amboy, at the time of 
General Washington's inauguration, she says that she 
could not attend the ball given to Washington owing to 
respect for her other ruler ; but she cautiously gives us a 
glimpse of feminine curiosity when she adds that she 
" went to view the new crystal sconces which were being 
put up in the assembly-room that afternoon." 

After living at Shipley until 1783, James Parker re- 
moved his family to New Brunswick, and sometime 
afterwards, owing to the influence of friends and his 
vehemently declared neutrality all through his imprison- 

160 



THE PARKER CASTLE 



ment, he was able to secure his castle, which came near 
being added to the list of confiscated great houses in 
Perth Amboy. During the war it had been used by the 
British alternately as a barracks and a hospital, and there 
are said to have been many blood-stains on the walls 
and hoof-beats on the floor when the family returned to 
its welcoming shelter. 

There in that sad year after the Revolution was over, 
in the rooms where many a noble entertainment had 
been given during Governor Franklin's regime and in the 
times of the long list of governors preceding him, the 
aristocratic Royalist society, the flower of Amboy, came 
in twos and threes to say good-by before sailing for Eng- 
land. There were no more stately quadrilles, no more 
courtly games of trick-track and la prime, no more laugh- 
ter, — only tears and weeping farewells. In many a group 
was a fair girl who afterwards became " my lady," and 
many a handsome youth destined to be knighted, then 
glad enough of a berth on some small merchantman to 
bear them home to the country of which they knew only 
by hearsay, but for which they had risked and lost all. 

One who visited the Parker Castle n:"ny years after 
the royal cross of St. George had been taken down 
from the flag-staff in the centre of " Amboy Green," 
where the youth of the city have sported for more 
than one hundred years, wrote of it as " a venerable 
and fascinating pile, and a worthy rival of the storied 
homes of older lands." Describing the drawing-room, 
its largest apartment, she says : 

** It was a long room, with walls painted a dull green. The spindle- 
legged Chippindale chairs, and the great claw-footed ' Orleans sofas,' 
II i6i 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



as they were called in those days, were covered with slips of white 
dimity. Never was there a prettier scene than on those summer after- 
noons when Miss Betsy Parker gave her galas, or tea-drinkings. The 
noble, snow-crowned old lady, throned on her most pretentious white- 
covered sofa, was a picture of age made lovely as her guests flashed 
about her and paid their homage. Outside the millions of unfurled 
leaves danced and sang and threw soft dark shadows on the festive scene, 
and the sweet scents of old-fashioned flowers, white jasmine and musk- 
roses stole through the aged casements. In that beautiful old green 
drawing-room, where the gay, witty Betsy of early years said good-by 
to her girlhood friends, she and her sister continued to receive all that 
was best in Amboy society for over half a century." 

From old letters and Amboy tales we know of many of 
the long list of notables who came there. Among them 
were Admiral Porter, then Captain Porter, and his fine 
buxom daughter, who summered every year at Brighton 
House; the gallant Captain John Angus and little 
Julianna, the pride of his life, who sleeps in old St. 
Peter's Churchyard under one of Madame Scribblerus's 
epitaphs; Ambassador Meade, at whose wedding to 
Miss Butler, of Perth Amboy, Miss Betsey Parker 
was presented with a jewelled snuff-box ; Old Judge 
Nevill, who p "ted the first magazine printed in New 
Jersey, and which for a time was published by James 
Parker, and William Dunlop then the happy mana- 
ger of the Park Theatre and the author of the success- 
ful tragedy of " Major Andre." Who knows, too, but 
perhaps Aaron Burr came there when staying at Cap- 
tain Lewis's house after his duel with Alexander Ham- 
ilton, or Joseph Bonaparte on the very day that his 
famous brother was sent an exile to St. Helena, for it is 
said he was in Amboy on that occasion. But no one is 

162 



THE PARKER CASTLE 



left to tell us if these maybe correct surmises are true. 
The daughters of James Parker are all asleep beneath 
violet-grown graves, under the holy shadows of old St. 
Peter's, that historic place of worship, famous for its 
massive silver communion-service, presented by Queen 
Anne, and its melodious bell, given by some old sea-dog 
of the eighteenth century. The Amboy they and their 
father knew, with its beruffled and gold-laced aristocracy, 
its fair days sanctioned by the crown, with their merry 
hawking, cudgel-playing, and marionette shows, its 
stately dances and sumptuous feasts, is no more. The 
quaint little shops on the crooked lanes and side-streets 
near the water-front, where India muslins, rich silks from 
China, and heathen gewgaws could be bought, closed 
their doors almost a century ago. The beautiful gardens 
of Amboy are only memories. The stately mansions, 
the delight of so many generations of Amboyites, — 
Edinborough Castle, the home of the Johnstone family ; 
the Watson House, where John Watson the first 
painter mentioned in the annals of American art resided ; 
the Willocks, Angus, Hamilton, Farmar, Terrill, and 
Montgomerie homesteads, — have all fled before the en- 
croaching hand of time. It is true that still standing are 
many old houses with histories, a few proud monuments 
to family cohesiveness, like the Parker Castle and the 
Paterson Mansion, but most of them are rapidly decaying 
old hulks of buildings, longing for death at the hands of 
the elements. They are the poor relics of a once proud 
city, which its early proprietors hoped would one day 
be the pride of the western world and a glory to their 

king. 

163 



MOUNT PLEASANT HALL 



FRENEAU 



WHERE JAMES MADISON WOOED IN VAIN THE SISTER 
OF PHILIP FRENEAU, THE POET OF THE REVOLUTION 




UARDED by Beacon Hill, a 
mile and a half out on the Mid- 
dletown Point turnpike, is what 
remains of the home of Philip 
Freneau, the most noted Ameri- 
can poet and writer of his day, 
whose stirring verses served hot 
from " The Sign of the Rose," 
at the outbreak of the Revolution, and later at his own 
little press at Mount Pleasant, did much to inspire the 
hearts of his countrymen with the love of freedom. 

The first homestead was erected in the year 1752 by 
Pierre Freneau, the father of the poet, and was named 
Mount Pleasant, after the residence of his grandfather 
in La Rochelle. Its situation was truly pleasant, and 
almost divine. It stood in the midst of a grove of great 
locust-trees, every one of them over a century old, and 
said to have given the poet as much pleasure as anything 
in his life. About it stretched, as far as the eye could 
reach, hundreds and hundreds of acres of fertile Jersey 
farm-land, all a part of the Freneau plantation. 

During Pierre Freneau's life his family spent only a 

164 



MOUNT PLEASANT HALL 



portion of each year at Mount Pleasant, as he possessed 
a large mansion on Frankfort Street, New York City ; 
but after his decease, in 1767, his widow removed there 
permanently with her five children, — Philip Morin, 
Mary, Peter, Andrew, and Margaret Allaire, and his old 
" Aunt Allaire," always an important member of the 
household. Mount Pleasant Hall was a wide and spa- 
cious dwelling. There was one large main house and 
two wooden wings added at later periods. A wide hall 
ran through the middle building, and there were bal- 
conies at the north and south ends, giving it a very 
stately appearance. 

From old letters and papers we learn that the family 
lived the usual peaceful life of cultured leisure indulged 
in by the Jersey gentry farmers of the period. There are 
several pieces of gold and silver plate still in existence, 
handed down as heirlooms through the Freneau family, 
which are mute testators that they were familiar with the 
luxuries of the times. 

The young Philip at an early age began the indul- 
gence of his poetic fancy. As a boy he loved to climb 
the heights of the blue Homdel hills, and gaze off over 
the mysterious Atlantic, dreaming of the days when he 
should flit over its foam-flecked waters in a gallant ship, 
the hero of a hundred brave adventures. Most likely 
his youthful imagination was well steeped with the tales 
of pirates and buccaneers which lived in the minds of 
the people in the vicinity. The wild coast of New Jer- 
sey sheltered many a Blackbeard and Captain Kidd in 
the early eighteenth century, and often suspicious crafts 
found their way there at a much later period. The 

i6s 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

dwellers near the coast were never free from the terror 
of gangs of robbers, called in Monmouth picarooners ; 
and Mrs. Freneau often bade her slaves hide the plate 
in the meal barrels when the house was approached by 
strangers. 

The Rev, William Tennent, of Freehold, and later 
the Penolopen Latin School, conducted by the Rev. Alex- 
ander Mitchell, prepared Philip for the College of New 
Jersey. After his arrival there, at the age of sixteen, his 
squibs and poems, especially " The History of the Pro- 
phet Jonah," charmed his fellow-students as much as the 
proficiency displayed in his studies delighted good Presi- 
dent Witherspoon, for that worthy soon wrote a congratu- 
latory letter to Mrs. Freneau, praising her son's good parts, 
and the students hailed Freneau as a dawning genius. 

While at Nassau Hall, in fair Prince-Town, he en- 
tered into close intimacy with many of his classmates 
who afterwards became notable in their various walks 
of life. Among them were Brockholst Livingston, 
future justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, and also one of his relatives by marriage ; Wil- 
liam Bradford, Attorney-General during Washington's 
second term of office ; Hugh Henry Brackenridge, judge 
and author ; Samuel Spring, chaplain to the Revolution- 
ary army ; Aaron Burr, afterwards Vice-President of the 
United States ; Henry Lee, the famous " Light-Horse 
Harry ;" Gunning Bedford, one of the framers of the 
Constitution; Aaron Ogden, afterwards governor of 
New Jersey ; and James Madison, the fourth President, 
who was Philip's room-mate and one of his warmest 
personal friends through life. 

i66 



MOUNT PLEASANT HALL 



It was during one of the college vacations that the 
quiet and studious little Madison accompanied Freneau 
to his Jersey home for a visit. One who loiters along the 
old Middletown turnpike near Mount Pleasant to-day will 
see few changes in the scenic setting through which their 
coach passed. A century has rolled very lightly adown 
that seldom frequented highway. Many of the houses 
Freneau knew are still lingering, mossy and weather- 
beaten, by the roadside, and some of the stone fences 
built by Freneau slaves yet stand guard over fertile fields. 

Very joyful was that home-coming and the welcome 
given to young Madison in a household where all that 
was best in Huguenot customs and traditions still lin- 
gered. How gladly the poet's beautiful mother — for she 
is radiantly beautiful in her old portrait with the sabre 
thrust through the heart * — embraced them both. Under 
one of the vine-covered porticos old Aunt Allaire was 
waiting to add her caresses, and in the background stood 
the poet's lovely sister Mary. " She was as pure as an 
angel," Freneau wrote of her in after years ; and as 
young Madison gazed on her his heart was lost. 

James Madison could have written of his first love, 
Mary Freneau, those beautiful lines which the poet em- 
bodied in the most exquisite of all his poems, " The 
Wild Honeysuckle," for most of her hfe had been 
passed in the glades and glens of rural Monmouth. 

* The portrait of Agnes Watson (Mrs. Freneau), painted when 
she was about sixteen, formerly hung in old Mount Pleasant Hall. 
During the Revolution the house was visited by marauders, and many 
of the family portraits were mutilated. The one of Agnes Watson 
received a sabre thrust near the location of the heart. 

167 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



** Fair flower that doth so comely grow. 
Hid in this silent, dull retreat. 
Untouched thy honied blossoms blow. 
Unseen thy little branches greet." 

In those sylvian solitudes, of which Freneau has left 
us many charming pictures, — " by murmuring streams" 
and "flower-decked dells," — Madison breathed to his 
Jersey Mary his unrequited love. In vain he begged 
and implored her to marry him, but, although she ad- 
mired and respected him, she had formed a resolution to 
lead a single life, and could never be induced to alter 
her decision. The future President told the poet that 
he admired his sister more than any woman he had ever 
seen, and her refusal of him was the cause of that sad- 
ness of temperament noted in the early years of his man- 
hood. Poor Madison was pursued by ill luck in his 
love-affairs until he met his sprightly Dolly Payne. His 
second proposal, at the age of thirty-two, was anything 
but a happy choice. The lady. Miss Catherine Floyd, 
a daughter of General William Floyd, a signer of the 
Declaration of Independence, after accepting and then 
rejecting him for a more ardent suitor, added insult to 
injury, so tradition says, by sending him a lump of dough, 
shaped like a heart, to show her disgust at his wooing. 

Philip Freneau was much more successful in his love- 
affairs than his friend Madison. During these vacation 
days he began his courtship of Eleanor Forman,* of 

* Eleanor Forman's brothers and sisters all married into distinguished 
families. Among the prominent names of New York and New Jersey 
closely connected with theirs are those of Ledyard, Bleecker, Tappan, 
Seymour, Van Rensellaer, Jay, Cass, Colden, and Livingston. 



MOUNT PLEASANT HALL 



near-by Forman Place, now owned by the Vredenburgh 
family. She was a maiden both beautiful and educated 
far in advance of most of the women of her day. A 
pretty story is told of their corresponding in verse for a 
number of years before their marriage. Their engage- 
ment was a very long one for those days of hasty mar- 
riages, for they were not united until after the close of 
the Revolution. 

When the happy day at last arrived, the poet took his 
bride home to live at old Mount Pleasant Hall. They 
were both bookish people, and although never rich in 
this world's goods, managed to form one of the largest 
libraries in New Jersey at a time when a dozen or two 
books were considered a goodly number for the usual 
educated household. Towards the close of the eigh- 
teenth century, while living at the Hall, they had a small 
building erected as a library, some distance from the main 
house, and there they used to retire from household cares 
and read and write in solitude. After their brilliant life in 
Philadelphia, where Freneau edited The National Gazette 
and was French translator for Jefferson, then Secretary 
of State, and Mrs. Freneau's little salon became known 
as a magnet for the wits of the Quaker City, this library 
house afforded great enjoyment to Mrs. Freneau. Writing 
to her young brother. Major Samuel Forman, then in the 
wilderness of Northern New York, near Cayuga Lake, 
she says : 

<' My two little girls and books are my chief comforters. I wish it 
were in my power to send you as good a collection of the latter as we 
have. You would not feel the loss of friendship and the want of com- 
pany so much as you do. We must endeavor to make ourselves inde- 

169 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



pendent of the world as far as possible, and let our own friends furnish 
us with that pleasure which too many of us go in search of abroad." 

In these quiet days many relations and distinguished 
friends journeyed to visit the poet and his wife. We 
know Madison and his new-made wife were invited, 
for Freneau sent him a belated letter of congratula- 
tion on his marriage which contained such an invi- 
tation : 

"Monmouth May 20'*^, 1795 
** My Respected Friend, — 

" The Public papers some time ago announced your marriage. I wish 
you all possible happiness with the lady whom you have chosen for your 
Companion through life. M". Freneau joins me in the same, and desires 
me to present her best respects to your lady and yourself Should you 
ever take an excursion to these parts of Jersey, we will endeavor to give 
M" Madison and yourself — ' if not a costly welcome, yet a kind,' — 
" I am, Sir 

" with great Esteem 

'* Your friend and humble Serv* 

" Philip Freneau." 

Among all the guests who enjoyed their hospitality 
none could have been more welcome than Philip's hand- 
some brother, Peter Freneau, " the Apollo of Charles 
Town," who was secretary of state in South Carolina 
for the years 1788 to 1794 inclusive. He was a leader 
of society in the city which has been called one of the 
most aristocratic of the South, many of its inhabitants 
being members by birth of the French and English 
nobility. Among his intimates were Charles Cotesworth 
Pinckney, at whose hospitable mansion on the Bay he 
was a constant visitor; the witty Colonel Lehre; Mrs. 

170 



MOUNT PLEASANT HALL 



Ralph Izard, who was Miss De Lancey, a famous New 
York beauty ; Lady Mary Middleton, a relative of the 
Pinckneys ; Pierce Butler, a cousin of the Duke of Or- 
mond, and many others whose names have added lustre 
to the old city's social history. He was a striking figure 
at the gatherings of the St. Cecilia Society, noted for its 
handsome and elegantly garbed frequenters. An early 
visitor to Charles Town said that at the St. Cecilia meetings 
one could view the " choicest flowers" of the South, and 
Quincy wrote, " In loftiness of head-dress the ladies stoop 
to the daughters of the North ; in richness of dress sur- 
pass them." It is related of Peter Freneau that when 
visiting Mr. and Mrs. Philip Freneau in Philadelphia, he 
was one of the most talked of men in the Assemblies, 
and his likeness to Charles Fox was so pronounced that 
a portrait of the British statesman was exhibited as his 
own. 

When the old city by the sea was still in her maiden- 
hood, one of the diversions of her aristocracy was the 
spring-time fetes, or revels, held in the gardens of lordly 
plantations. Under tall oaks, magnolias, and blossoming 
mulberries, on lawns and broad balconies, the planters 
and their families would gather to make merry in the 
first month of flowers. Mrs. Philip Freneau, when an 
aged lady residing in New York, used to tell of a visit 
to his great plantation on the Cooper River, and the 
grandeur of a spring-time ball given by her brother- 
in-law, Peter, for some distinguished friends. The great 
ball-room with its waxed floor, the myriad lights in 
the sixteenth century sconces, the grand company, the 
catalpa- and mulberry-trees in the garden glowing under 

171 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

the stars, and the music were always fresh in her mind ; 
but the most distinct figure was her ideal of manhood, 
Peter, of whom it is recorded that no woman ever 
looked once without looking again. 

Peter Freneau was noted for his liberality and hand- 
some presents. On one occasion he and his wife drove 
by easy stages from Charleston to Mount Pleasant Hall, 
and on their arrival he presented his brother with the span 
of horses, carriage, and slave coachman. After a sub- 
sequent visit he took the eldest daughter of the poet back 
with him to Charleston, where she remained some time 
attending the school conducted by the daughter of Ad- 
miral De Grasse, who afterwards became Mrs. De Pau, 
of New York. This distinguished son of New Jersey, 
and the friend of many great men of his time, has been 
called the American Addison, and his French translations 
were admired by Napoleon. To-day he rests in his 
adopted Charleston, in the old French Huguenot church, 
in the heart of the city. Over him is the beautiful 
epitaph : " Whatever Omnipotence decides is right." 
Typical of the man. 

Mount Pleasant Hall was partly destroyed by fire in 
1818, on Sunday, when the family were away visiting a 
neighboring mansion ; but fortunately many pieces of 
fine furniture and several portraits brought from France 
were saved by a faithful negro slave who happened to be 
at home. 

After the catastrophe the poet, his wife, and children, 
who now numbered four girls, on the verge of woman- 
hood, removed to a house owned by Daniel Forman, 
Mrs. Freneau's brother, a few miles distant. There they 

172 



MOUNT PLEASANT HALL 



lived in retirement, enjoying the delights of the Freehold 
neighborhood until the poet's death in 1832. 

In this house his second and favorite daughter, Agnes, 
wedded Edward Leadbeater, a surgeon in the British 
army, who gave up his estates and a title to settle in 
America. Every country family for miles around 
attended, and we know of two who journeyed by post- 
chaise from New York to Mount Pleasant. They were 
Alicia, the bridegroom's fair sister, and her dashing hus- 
band, Patrick O'Rielly, Marquis of Breffney, who to be 
united to his first love had defied church and family and 
fled to the welcoming arms of the New World. 

Edward Leadbeater and his wife rebuilt Mount Pleas- 
ant Hall, and spent their summers there until the brave 
gentleman's death, shortly before that of his distinguished 
father-in-law. 

A portion of the house is standing to-day, but it is 
sadly changed and modernized. The great grove of 
locust-trees which the poet loved so well, and where the 
young Madison and his first love spent many a happy 
hour, is a memory of the past. The old Middletown 
Point turnpike still circles about the Freneau estate, and 
folds in its arms broad sweeps of green fields lengthening 
into woodlands and high hills swept by the cool breezes 
from the distant ocean. On one of these hills, where 
periwinkle and wild roses live together as kindred, in a 
spot as peaceful as the imagination can picture, are the 
graves of this famous New Jersey family. The resting- 
place of the poet is close by that of his beloved mother, 
under the shade of a tree where he wrote many of his 
most celebrated poems and composed those beautiful 

173 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



lines in " The Dying Indian," while his eyes rested on 
the panorama of Monmouth scenery he loved until 
death : 

"I too must be a fleeting ghost — no more — 
None, none but shadows to those mansions go ; 
I leave my woods, I leave the Huron shore, 

For emptier groves below ! 

Ye charming solitudes. 

Ye tall ascending woods. 
Ye glassy lakes and prattling streams. 

Whose aspect still was sweet. 

Whether the sun did greet. 
Or the pale moon embraced you with his beams — 

Adieu to all ! 
To all that charmed me where I stray' d. 
The winding stream, the dark sequester' d shade ; 

Adieu all triumphs here ! 

Adieu the mountains lofty swell. 

Adieu, thou little verdant hill. 
And seas, and stars, and skies — farewell 

For some remoter sphere !" 



174 



THE BURROWES 
MANSION 



MATAWAN 



WHERE THE BURROWES REVOLU- 
TIONARY TRAGEDY OCCURRED 




HE Burrowes Mansion, still stand- 
ing in the picturesque village of 
Matawan, — noted for its old 
trees, old churches, and old dwell- 
ings, — is very much like the for- 
mer Mount Pleasant Hall. They 
were both erected in the first half 
of the eighteenth century, and 
tradition says by the same architect, a native of Eliza- 
bethtown, whose name is lost to posterity. 

John Burrowes, or " Corn-King Burrowes," as he was 
sometimes called, became its owner a few years after its 
completion. He was a wealthy produce merchant with a 
line of vessels running between Kearny-Port and New 
York City. Back of the old mansion to-day one of his 
storehouses or granaries is an interesting village land- 
mark. Out of its weather-beaten gray doors, in the long 
ago, his slaves would bring the bags of yellow grain and 
load the carts in the lane. The driver of the first cart 
would start his patient horses, and then the procession 

175 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



was off. Down the hilly, safFron-colored road from the 
house, winding serpentine to Kearny-Port, it would go 
until it reached a wharf where a clumsy white-sailed 
vessel was in readiness to bear it off to the markets of 
the distant city. The owner of the caravan always rode 
on horseback in the rear, and he was oftimes accompanied 
by his faithful wife and some of the children of that happy 
household. 

The first New Jersey company formed for the Revo- 
lutionary War was mustered in the garden of the Bur- 
rowes home. Its organizers were the son of the " Corn 
King," John Burrowes, Jr., appointed a major, and Jona- 
than Forman, who became his brother-in-law. The lat- 
ter had just left the College of New Jersey and was not 
yet of age. Andrew Brown, an old sea captain, mar- 
shalled the large meeting of men, women, and children 
to take leave of fathers, brothers, husbands, and friends. 
The occasion was one of great solemnity, and was con- 
ducted with patriotic firmness and subdued grief When 
the roll had been called the drum and fife struck up the 
air of " Duncan Davie," and the first New Jersey com- 
pany marched away to embark for Long Island and join 
General Washington's forces. 

Many of John Burrowes's quaint old letters are in 
existence to-day, and they show him to have been a 
loving husband and father. A very interesting one to 
his wife, dated June 5, 1769, tells of his arriving at 
New York just before nightfall and finding all business 
suspended on account of the king's birthday. He 
wrote of "joy fires" burning along the streets, and " fine 
company moving abroad," but on every page he tells in 

176 



THE BURROWES MANSION 



words faded, but still legible, of " yearnings" tor the 
dear ones at Middletown. 

Mrs. Burrowes was the former wife of her husband's 
early partner in the mercantile business, and at his death 
she was left with an estate considered very large for those 
days. She was a woman of superior refinement and deli- 
cate fancy, and she loved her great mansion so ardently 
that she called it, in the romantic fashion of the times, 
" the enchanted castle." In a letter received by her 
from a Airs. Falck, a former governess to her children, 
there is reference to it by that name. At the time Mrs. 
Falck had left her service and was expecting her husband 
from London. It is a charming letter for one penned 
nearly a century and a half ago, and one reading it can- 
not help feeling that our ancestors were not the shadowy 
creatures we are wont to picture them. It reads : 

"N. York May j^^ \j6j 

** Mn'dy even 

"I again trouble you my dear Mrs. Burrowes with another epistle, 
tho' I know not whether you have rec' my last. I gave it to Ned 
Hammond last Monday who promised to send it by the first boat. 

" The Packet is not yet arrived from London tho' it is ten weeks last 
Wednesday since she sailed (by the accounts in the Papers) My 
anxious heart forbodes a thousand ills for I know not whether Doctor 
Falck is not on board, so I am alarmed at his tedious passage. No doubt 
all is ordered for the best as : the Great first Cause rules over all, in all, 
and thro' all. 

'* I am so impatient to be again in the Inchanted Castle that (whether 
the Packet comes or not) I am determined to come back with Mrs. 
Brown the next frd'y. 

** I forgot to write you in my last that Mrs. Harrison my father's 
new wife is in town ; I just caught a glance of her yesterday in Queen 

12 177 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

Street, — as she walked past our door Miss Paty bid me look at my 
mother-in-law. She was drest like a girl of fifteen and the sight of her 
mortified me Prodigiously but I soon overcame it. 

** Present my love to Mr. Burro wes, and my pupils Caty and 
Hopey ; and cease not to rank among the number of your Particular 
Friends her who is with the greatest esteem 

** My dr Mrs. Burrowes 

" Your friend 

"Sarah Falck." 

Strange as it may seem to twentieth-century ears, 
reference to handsome houses as enchanted castles seems 
to have been quite in vogue in Mrs. Burrowes's day. 
Colonel Byrd, of Westover, writing of Governor Spots- 
wood's house at Germanna, dubbed it the " Enchanted 
Castle," and Charles Pinckney and others of lesser re- 
nown have used it in their letters. 

Sad to relate, Mrs. Falck never took her impatiently 
awaited journey to the Burrowes enchanted castle, but 
sailed for England a few days after her letter arrived at 
Middletown-Foint. There in later years she no doubt 
visited many castles, enchanted or otherwise, as her hus- 
band became a protege of Sir Clifton Wintringham, the 
Duchess of Kingston, and other London notables. In 
Mrs. Falck 's letters to Mrs. Burrowes, bearing Revolu- 
tionary dates, there are references to new friends and 
acquaintances as " people of the first quality." 

Life in the Burrowes Mansion in the old days before 
the fateful year of 1776 was beautiful, and ran gayly, — 
almost as gayly as the little brook which sings to an 
army of young willow-trees in a valley close by the 
house. It was a household of romping young people, 
composed of one son and four daughters, — two of the 

178 



THE BURROWES MANSION 



latter bearing the Burrowes name and two the Watson 
name. Fortune smiled on them, and burnished their 
roof-tree with her golden horn. Many a score of slaves 
filled the cabins at the back of the lane. There were fine 
horses and coaches, fine jewels and dresses for the female 
portion of the family, brought by the sailing-vessels when 
returning fi-om New York, fine liquors for the smiling 
punch-bowls, and, in fact, everything in connection with 
the family was fine, for they were one of the finest 
families of New Jersey. 

At the outbreak of the Revolution John Burrowes 
had been dealing largely in corn purchased from Mon- 
mouth farmers, and his many granaries were filled to 
overflowing. When the storm of the war burst in its 
fijry, and there was a greater demand for than a supply 
of corn, all the Whig families in the vicinity looked to 
him for their needs, and he earned his title of " Corn- 
King Burrowes." 

Tory neighbors who had formerly been intimate with 
him naturally envied his good fortune. Much to his 
annoyance, they planned raids to his corn-bins, which 
generally proved futile, owing to the vigilance of friends. 
As the British gained entrance into Jersey these attacks 
became more and more frequent, and on one of them 
the tragedy occurred which gave the house its gruesome 
interest. Every year it is visited by a few roaming anti- 
quarians, and as they mount the stairway, now slightly 
modernized, they always pause to wonder if the red 
spots on the boards are the blood-stains of young Mrs. 
Burrowes, who was stabbed for defying a band of 
redcoats. 

179 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



Mrs. Burrowes, nee Margaret Forman, one of Mon- 
mouth's Revolutionary martyrs, was the wife of Major 
John Burrowes, the only son of the " Corn King," and a 
sister of Mrs. PhiUp Freneau, the wife of the Revolu- 
tionary poet. Her marriage to Major Burrowes was the 
fifth marriage in the Burrowes family to be celebrated 
during the war, his sisters having been united to Dr. 
Henderson and Captain Forman, and his step-sisters, the 
Watson girls, to Colonel Holmes and General Stillwell. 

There was always the thought of long separation and 
the grimmer reflection of death for people of prominence 
who married in those troublous days, when foes were 
ever on the alert, but the old-time Jersey girls seem to 
have delighted in it. The greater the risk the more 
eager they seemed to join hands with those of their true 
loves, even though they bade them God-speed to the 
battle-field after the ceremony. 

There is a pretty and pathetic Monmouth tale told 

of a Freehold maid who married her soldier lover in her 

father's orchard, under boughs laden with snow-like 

blossoms. He left her side to march away with his 

regiment, vowing to return when the fruit was ripe. Not 

far from the orchard the great battle of Monmouth was 

fought, and he in the thick of the fight heard the final 

trumpet-call. The next day he was borne home to her 

through the orchard by some of his surviving comrades. 

It is said his blood stained the trees as he was carried 

along, and as a remembrance of the sweet vows they 

had heard, the fruit they afterwards bore was always 

circled with red, and the people of the vicinity named 

the apples " Monmouth reds." 

i8o 



THE BURROWES MANSION 



There is no knowing whether the Forman and Bur- 
rowes wedding was interrupted ; but most Hkely not, as 
it was celebrated very quietly. The Taylors and other 
Tory families of prominence in the neighborhood soon 
learned of it. Though spies were set upon the movements 
of the bridegroom with a view of capturing him, he suc- 
cessfully baffled them until some months afterwards, 
when they received the intelligence that he would visit 
his home. On that afternoon the Tories succeeded in 
getting word to the leader of " The Greens," an organ- 
ized band of refugees on Staten Island, the terror of 
every Whig family for miles inland. They immedi- 
ately crossed to the Jersey shore, and arrived on the 
road to the Burrowes Mansion shortly after midnight. 
We can picture the scene if we are at all familiar with 
the region. A June-time night, with a great full moon 
shining over the silent habitation lying by the road like 
some human thing with the breath of life gone out. 
The verdant foliage, so green at noonday, has a grayish 
tinge. The night's multitudinous voices have almost 
ceased, and even the yellow road seems white and merged 
into the landscape. 

Up the hilly road to the sleeping house the men from 
Staten Island come, but a friendly courier has been there 
a few moments before them, and Major Burrowes has 
escaped from a back window. 

Thinking the rebel safe in their net at last, the mob 
broke in the great front door and entered the house, led, 
so tradition says, by Broomfield, afterwards notorious at 
Fort Griswold. 

The family had been awakened by the courier's warn- 

i8i 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



ing, and Mrs. Burrowes, clad only in her night-robe, with 
a shawl thrown about her shoulders, started to descend 
the stairway when the door fell in. 

A British officer was accidentally shot in the melee 
outside, and when the men entered the house, one of 
them, spying Mrs. Burrowes's shawl, demanded it to 
stanch his superior's wounds. " Never for such a pur- 
pose," she replied ; and the soldier, infuriated, thrust his 
sabre into her breast, giving a wound which caused her 
death. Chagrined at the escape of Major Burrowes, and 
not content at his wife's suffering, the cry was raised to 
seize the " Corn King." He was bound and carried off 
to a prison-ship, and incarcerated for several months, but 
was eventually released through Dr. Henderson's efforts. 

The house was pillaged and the granaries and store- 
houses burned, but by a miracle the Mansion itself 
escaped. Although now unoccupied and neglected, it 
is in a fair state of preservation. Its exterior is little 
changed since the day Mrs. Falck longed to come back 
to her " enchanted castle," and John Burrowes sailed his 
line of vessels in and out of Kearny-Port, and wrote 
to his "dear wife" from New York, — "Every time I 
sail away from you — even for a short time — I find my 
thoughts directed to my Jersey home and loved ones." 



182 



THE HANKINSON 
MANSION 



FREEHOLD 



WHERE GENERAL CLINTON AND HIS OFFICERS PASSED 
THE NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE OF MONMOUTH 




|NE of the best preserved and 
architecturally beautiful houses 
in Freehold is the Hankinson 
Mansion, which Sir Henry Clin- 
ton, on his retreat from Phila- 
delphia, made his head-quarters 
on June 27, 1778, the day be- 
fore the battle of Monmouth. 
It was erected by a member of the Hankinson family 
about 1755, and is just beyond the crowded portion 
of the village, on the "old Burlington Path." The 
quaint ornamental cornice is the same as that on the 
famous Tennent Church, built three years earlier, and 
but a few miles distant. 

At the time of Sir Henry Clinton's occupancy it was 
owned by a Mrs. William Conover, an elderly dame 
living there with her slaves. On learning that the British 
were advancing, she, like other prudent housewives in 
Freehold, buried her plate and china by the lilac and 
rose-bushes in the garden and secreted her fine furniture 

183 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

in a wood a few miles distant from the house. On the 
morrow, so the story goes, gazing with trepidation from 
the windows of the chintz-hung drawing-room, she spied 
the enemy in a sohd red column advancing towards her 
dwelling. Faint with horror, but secretly pleased that 
her choice possessions were safe, she folded her hands 
and resignedly awaited their coming. 

Sir Henry Clinton on this occasion played the wolf 
in sheep's clothing, for he calmed Mistress Conover's 
fears, and soon cajoled her into sending for her furniture 
and other belongings necessary for his comfort, which 
he afterwards permitted his men to loot. 

Dr. Thomas Henderson, her nearest neighbor, writing, 
shortly after the Revolution, in The Jersey Gazette^ of 
the harsh treatment Mrs. William Conover and many 
people of Monmouth received at the hands of the British, 
says: 

"After he (General Clinton) had been for some time in her house, 
and taking notice that most of the goods were removed, he observed that 
she need not have sent off her effects for safety, that he would have 
secured her, and asked if the goods could not be brought back again. 
The old lady objected, but upon the repeated assurance of General 
Clinton in person that they should be secured for her, she consented, and 
sent a person he had ordered, along with a wagon, to show where they 
were secreted. When the goods were brought to the door, which was 
in the latter part of the day, the old lady applied to General Clinton in 
person for permission to have them brought in and taken care of, but he 
refused, and ordered a guard set on the goods. The morning following, 
the old lady finding most of the goods plundered and stolen, applied to 
him again for leave to take care of the remainder. He then allowed her 
to take care of some trifling articles, which were all she saved. . . . 

** With regard to personal treatment, she was turned out of her bed- 

184 



THE HANKINSON MANSION 



room and obliged to lie with her wenches, either on the floor, without 
bed or bedding, in an entry, exposed to the passing and repassing of all, 
or sit in a chair in the milk-room, too bad for any of the officers to 
lie in." 

Many a brave young Englishman bearing an historic 
name slept his last sleep in the old Hankinson Mansion 
that night. Such is the fortune of war. We read in 
the list of British officers killed or wounded at the 
bloody battle of Monmouth, Lieutenant-Colonel Hon. 
H. Monckton, Captain Gore, Lieutenants Kennedy and 
Vaughan, Colonel Trelawny, Captain Desborough, and 
many others, all descendants of noble lines. 

Some years after Sir Henry Clinton had been driven 
from the battle-field of Monmouth, and the trusting old 
lady he had forced to sleep in her draughty milk-room, 
surrounded by her black wenches, was at rest in the 
Freehold church-yard, the Hankinson Mansion was sold 
to Captain William Forman, a member of the noted 
Monmouth Forman family, who had served in the navy 
during the war, and was then engaged in the lucrative 
East-India trade. Captain Forman was a jolly bachelor 
and one of the traditional sea-dogs of the old school. 
He brought with him his younger brothers and sisters, 
and a new era began for the old house. 

In the large rooms and wide halls, once filled with 
stern-faced men on the eve of battle, light-hearted girls 
in embroidered gowns of the Empire period and youths in 
blue coats, yellow breeches, flowered vests, and variously 
colored and sometimes striped stockings, danced, or 
tried to dance, the newly imported waltz. Early 
nineteenth-century society could not quite accustom 

i8s 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

itself to giving up the stately Sir Roger de Coverly, the 
minuet, the Virginia reel, and the older hemp-dressers, for 
" the funny new favorites," as a Monmouth girl wrote 
in her diary of the waltz and the constitution polka. 

On the simply carved mantels of the Hankinson 
Mansion costly " heathen bric-a-brac," as the Freehold 
neighborhood used to speak of its china vases and orna- 
ments, added to the richness of the rooms. For the table- 
service the captain brought home with him on one of 
his trips two sets of the fine India china so much in 
use in the old days. 

What fond beatings stirred the hearts of the Free- 
hold maidens when the " Saucy Betty" or the " Swift 
Sally" was due in port, and the dreams of wonder- 
ful fabrics and gewgaws were about to come true. 
Great was the excitement in the chintz parlor when 
the captain and his chests arrived on the coach from 
Amboy, for people made more over home-comings in 
those days, when travel was not general. 

One can picture the happy family embracing the 
wanderer, and holding him at an arm's length to make 
sure he had really returned, and the next minute fum- 
bling with the locks of his sweet-smelling foreign boxes, 
impatient to peep at the presents. On such occasions 
we see the dapper sea-captain with his genial weather- 
beaten face aglow with smiles, surrounded by his eager 
females, a veritable Alexander Selkirk, proud monarch 
of all he surveyed. Then soon the friends begin to 
arrive, — the Henderson girls from over the way, the 
Vredenburghs, Breeses, Freneaus, Piatts, Lippencotts, 
Littles, Denises, Vanderveers, Englishes, Throckmortons, 

i86 



THE HANKINSON MANSION 



Gastons, Perrines, and all the gentry of the Freehold 
neighborhood ; the Forman cousins, from Violet Bank, 
out of Freehold, in the old coach which has outlived 
halt a century, and the Bergens, from Bottle Hill. 
What laughter, kissing, and rejoicing as they sit about 
the dining-room on spindle-legged chairs and hear of 
the captain's latest adventures, as they taste the jellies 
and whipped sillabubs, and sip the seasoned port and the 
"stewed Quaker,"* so popular in Monmouth households. 
In old Freehold letters there are many glimpses of 
early Monmouth society. A letter dated August, 1809, 
written by Miss Sally Holmes, a Jersey girl then visiting 
New York City, contains a charming display of Jersey 
loyalty. She writes : 

"The style of living here, the customs, manners, and general sub- 
jects of conversation are very disappointing. The style is not as elegant 
as I expected to have seen, and the most sensible and witty lady here 
would not be observed in Monmouth except for her satire and folly. 
The beaus are in no way captivating, and although they abound in num- 
bers, they are much inferior to the Monmouth gentlemen. I could not 
recommend it to any of my friends to come here, unless it should be to 
make a fortune, that they might return to Jersey to enjoy it." 

One of the Monmouth captivating gentlemen was a 
wit by the name of Bergen. With his " full flow of 
flowery imagery and constant stream of mind" he was 
always a welcome addition to the gatherings at Captain 
Forman's. A friend of Miss Holmes's, whose sister had 
been much in his company, wrote jestingly to her : 

* Stewed Quaker was a Freehold drink of hot cider, with a roasted 
Monmouth red floating on top of the mug or bowl. 

187 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

" You have enjoyed so many nuptial gayeties the past season and have 
recently, with an agreeable youth, advanced so far over the fertile plains, 
and through the pleasant and beautiflil villages of Essex, and over the 
vales and mountains of Morris, Sussex, and Hunterdon, that Time has 
rolled on his ceaseless course, not like the streams of Monmouth, wander- 
ing, meandering smoothly through the meads and fields, but running, 
rolling, rushing like the mountain torrents down the sides of lofty Alle- 
gheny. When on the mountain's top you cast your eyes around and saw 
hills and vales, woods and cultivated fields, did not a fine full flow of 
pleasure come rushing on your soul ? But you have descended from 
these aerial realms, and again feel the anxieties and cares mortals are sub- 
ject to." 

Among the belles of Freehold at the beginning of the 
last century the name of Sarah Woodhull* is prominent. 
She married William Gordon Forman, a descendant of 
High Sheriff Samuel Forman, and a relative of Captain 
William Forman, and brought him a large fortune. 
They removed to Natchez, where he soon became 
Speaker of the first House of Assembly in Mississippi. 
One of the Henderson girls wrote shortly before the 
Forman's left Freehold, in September of 1809 : 

"Last week I spent with Mrs. Major Forman (William Gordon 
Forman). She was much engaged in necessary preparation for her 
journey and stay in Natchez. Mrs. Woodhull told me that she felt 



* The portraits of Mr. and Mrs. William Gordon Forman, by an 
unknown artist, are in the possession of Mrs. Alice Forman, of Free- 
hold. Mrs. Forman's home contains many interesting antiquities. A 
beautiful mirror of the reign of Queen Anne adorns her drawing-room, 
and two pastoral scenes by Benjamin West, purchased at an auction over 
seventy-five years ago for a small sum, embellish its walls. She owns 
the chair used by Washington when he dismounted afteF the battle of 
Monmouth. 

188 



THE HANKINSON MANSION 

reconciled to her daughter's going, now that it appeared to her that the 
hand of providence was in it. She bears it with uncommon fortitude. 
She was as cheerful and her spirits as good as I have ever seen them. 
Mrs. Forman says that she can support herself in the trying scene if it 
does not overcome her parents, but to see them drooping and sinking with 
grief and distress on her account will be too much for her to bear. 
Sabra, her black mammy, has consented to go with them, which is a 
great comfort." 

The " hand of providence" did not smile on the 
venture of the Formans. Mrs. Forman died shortly- 
after their arrival at Natchez. A year later Mr. Forman 
started for her New Jersey home to leave his young 
daughter with her grandparents. Reaching Louisville, 
Kentucky, he was stabbed to death in his bedroom at the 
Gault House by negroes, who hoped to find a sum 
of money on his person. His fortune was in script, and 
proved useless to his murderers. 

The Freehold neighborhood, in the heart of Jersey, 
formed a little world of its own in the old days. 
At one time, during the War of 1812, twenty officers 
took lodging in the town. When Captain James Law- 
rence visited there the gaiety was at its height. Then 
it was that Captain Forman 's sisters wore huge mull 
bonnets, the envy of every maid who sang good White- 
field's " gay, theatrical tunes" at Tennent. The children 
of some of the first families decorated with flowers the 
path to the house where he stopped, and the gay roy- 
stering blade of a seaman over at the Hankinson 
Mansion asked his friends to drink the health of young 
Lawrence with many a bottle of old jewel-colored 

wine. 

189 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



The sea was the one grand passion of Captain Forman's 
life ; and to constantly remind himself of its changeful 
beauty when on land he had the walls of his parlors and 
bedrooms painted with marine views, a few of which 
still remain undestroyed in the Mansion. 

His friend the poet Philip Freneau addressed to 
him his amusing and witty lines on " The Sea-Faring 
Bachelor" : — 

*' So long harrass'd by winds and seas, 
'Tis time, at length, to take your ease. 
And seek a bride, for few can find 
The sea a mistress to their mind. 

In all your rounds, 'tis wond'rous strange 
No fair one tempts you to a change. 
Madness it is, you must agree. 
To lodge alone till forty-three. 

Old Plato own'd, no blessing here 

Could equal love — if but sincere ; 

And writings, penn'd by heaven, have shown 

That man can ne'er be blest alone. 



If Neptune's self, who rul'd the main. 
Kept sea-nymphs there to ease his pain ; 
Yourself, who skim that empire o'er. 
May surely have one nymph on shore. 

Myrilla fair, in yonder grove. 
Has so much beauty, so much love. 
That, on her lip, the meanest fly 
Is happier far than you or I." 
190 



THE HANKINSON MANSION 

The fair and loving Myrilla could not have pleased 
the captain's fancy, for he died a bachelor. Freehold was 
his home for many years, until the death of his mother, 
who before her marriage was a Miss WickofF. He then 
removed to the Kearny House, at Kearny-Port, now 
Keyport, where his sister Mary presided over his hos- 
pitable abode. 

After his removal, the old Hankinson Mansion passed 
through many hands, but is still in a fine state of preser- 
vation, and is one of the most picturesque houses in 
Freehold, on the road which the wags of the town used 
to say was " as straight as the road to perdition." 

Up in the large attic a long musty row of the cap- 
tain's trunks and foreign boxes still remain. They are 
a company of silent ghosts, for their faintly-perfiimed 
depths are haunted by memories of love and anticipation 
and the fair faces of Freehold maidens that once bent 
over them. 



191 



CINCINNATI HALL 

FREEHOLD 



WHERE THE NOTED DR. THOMAS HENDERSON EN- 
TERTAINED THE OLD FREEHOLD NEIGHBORHOOD 




]N the foundation of his paternal 
mansion, which was the first 
house in Freehold burned by 
the British soldiers on the day 
of the battle of Monmouth, Dr. 
Thomas Henderson built, shortly 
after the Revolution, a large 
frame dwelling of a much plainer 
style of architecture than that of his former home. In 
honor of the newly-organized Society of the Cincinnati 
he named it Cincinnati Hall, and by that name it became 
noted as one of the most hospitable of New Jersey 
homes. 

Dr. Henderson was very prominent among the men 
of old Monmouth. He was a member of the Provincial 
Congress, Lieutenant-Colonel of David Forman's com- 
pany of State militia during the Revolution, and after the 
war became a member of the New Jersey Legislature. As 
vice-president of the Council, he was acting governor of 
the State during Governor Howell's absence from Tren- 
ton in quelling the Pennsylvania whiskey insurrection in 
1794. Like that of other patriotic and high-minded 

192 



m 



CINCINNATI HALL 



Jerseymen, his fortune had been exhausted by the inroads 
of the Revolution, and his new Cincinnati Hall was 
not as elegant as many of the homes of his neigh- 
bors, — although his sister, Mrs. Tinney, who lived in a 
great house on State Street, off Bowling Green, New 
York City, wrote of it to a friend as " both commodious 
and genteel." 

The Henderson family in Scotland and America was 
noted for its piety and deep religious feeling. One of 
Dr. Henderson's ancestors was Alexander Henderson, 
of catechism fame, who sleeps in the kirk-yard of old 
Grey Friars, in Edinburgh, not far from the path where 
Sir Walter Scott used to walk with his first love, the 
beautiful Miss Stuart.* Dr. Henderson followed in the 
footsteps of his illustrious progenitor, and it is written of 
him that he was never missed from the Henderson pew, 
well up in the front of the quaint Tennent Church, on 
Sabbath-days. 

In his library at Cincinnati Hall the doctor com- 
piled for his friend Elias Boudinot the interesting 
account of the life and trance of the Rev. William 
Tennent which created such a sensation when published 
in "The Assembly's Missionary Magazine," and brought 
about renewed discussion of that famous divine's mys- 
terious journey to the unknown world, which is said 
to have occurred in the home of his brother, the Rev. 
Gilbert Tennent, then living on Burnet Street, New 
Brunswick. 

* This Miss Stuart is said to have nearly broken Sir Walter Scott's 

heart by reflising his suit. She afterwards married Sir William Forbes, 
a wealthy banker. 

13 193 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

Owing to ignorance and village credulity, the old 
Tennent parsonage in Freehold was pointed out 
as the house where " Dominie Tennent had his 
trance." It was the terror of all the bad children 
of the village, who were told when they passed there 
that Satan was liable to come out and carry off one of 
their toes. 

Cincinnati Hall in the old days was the social centre 
of the community and the recognized hearth for con- 
sociation. Many a lumbering family coach, bearing 
some state official and his family, journeyed in the first 
part of the past century through Hunterdon County to 
Monmouth, and finally took the road to Dr. Henderson's. 
Freehold hospitality then was very much like that to be 
found in the Southern States before the Civil War. No 
traveller of good appearance and address knocked at the 
door of the home of any of the first families without 
obtaining a cordial welcome from master and mistress, 
the cheerful slaves of the household ever ready to enjoy 
the excitement of guests. 

A Philadelphia gentleman, visiting Freehold eighty 
years ago, dwelt with rapture on the charms of the 
young ladies. He wrote of them as fine dancers, good 
horsewomen, and skilful in all womanly accomplish- 
ments. At one of the houses where he rode to spend 
the morning with a " Freehold beauty," he found his 
fair inamorata sewing little silver spangles in love-knot 
designs on a "palampour gown," to be worn at an 
assembly that evening. He wrote that the material was 
so thin and fine he could have held the length of it in 
his closed hand. It is to be regretted that he did not 

194 



CINCINNATI HALL 



describe the assembly, where the company no doubt 
played whist and trump, and Mrs. Freneau, who was 
then Hving in Freehold, sang, as she always did, "Diana's 
Lament," or some other sentimental song, and the 
beauty in the silvered gown, and the other beauties of 
the neighborhood, danced until midnight to the music 
of the negro fiddlers. 

The old Freehold tavern on the main street was one 
of the meeting-places for the devotees of fox-hunting 
in Monmouth. " Next to fine raiment, a good horse 
becomes a gentleman," was a Freehold fetish, and many 
of the neighborhood owned blooded horses. When the 
green luxuriance of the town grew monotonous, the first 
families would journey to the Branch for a breath of the 
sea. Long Branch at that time was a miniature hamlet, 
with only a few houses. A journey in the twenties from 
Freehold to the spot which became so famous during 
General Grant's Presidency was then looked upon like 
a journey to Bath. It is true there was no Pump Room 
to display finery, but there were the admiring eyes of 
handsome officers in blue coats and glowing buttons, 
and the Jersey maiden packed her boxes with much of 
the delight of the earlier Mayfair belle anticipating a 
minuet with the peerless Nash. 

Dr. Henderson in early life married Rachael Burrowes, 
a daughter of John Burrowes, of Middletown, and their 
union was blessed with several daughters, all of whom 
were Jersey belles. Perhaps the most noted was Eliza, 
who married Angus Bruen. Eliza was twenty-one at 
the outbreak of the War of 1812, and was still gracing 
her father's mansion. She was a very beautiful girl, 

19s 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

and of a sunny, vivacious temperament. Old letters 
abound with eulogistic tributes to her personality. Her 
sister Hope was nearly her age, and they were the life of 
the Hall. Their correspondence is full of gay badinage 
and feminine raillery. On the occasion of some enter- 
tainment at their father's mansion, Hope wrote to her 
" sister of the heart :" 

" Eliza do skip over the floor with the agility of a reindeer and talk 
with the eloquence of Cicero, and do not forget the retaliation that the 
Pines deserve, speak of the society as you did to sister Anna, and as 
much more as you please." 

Eliza most likely skipped over the floor that evening, 
her face wreathed in smiles and her coy head covered 
with hundreds of little Josephine ringlets, which dangled 
entrancingly at the gentlemen when she talked politics. 
Politics always came before neighborhood gossip in 
those days. 

In a charming letter written to her from her friend and 
cousin, Jane C. Green, of Cherry Grove,* Maidenhead, 
now Lawrenceville, which breathes the spirit of the time, 
one can see the great interest Jersey girls of the period 

* Cherry Grove, at Lawrenceville, the home of Jane C. Green, was 
erected by Colonel John Dagworthy, Before the Revolution it came into 
the possession of the Green family. About the time of the battle of 
Trenton, Colonel Dagworthy and his men quartered themselves on George 
Green, then its occupant, compelling his household to vacate the mansion. 
It is standing to-day with its exterior entirely unchanged, and is a beauti- 
ful specimen of a colonial house. Harmony Hall, another Lawrenceville 
house connected with the history of the same family, was torn down and 
rebuilt in 1 8 1 3 , Under a large willow-tree on its lawn Whitfield 
preached to an assemblage of five thousand Jerseymen. 

196 



ki 



CINCINNATI HALL 



must have taken in the welfare of their country. It 
reads : 

" Cherry Grove, Feb. 21, 181 3. 

** You say, my dear Eliza, that you fear there are causes for my silence 
of which you are totally ignorant. 

*' There are none, dearest girl, in which you are implicated, nor any 
that I wish to conceal from you, but they are too numerous to be related 
here. 

" I have been greatly disappointed in not receiving a visit from you 
this winter. I looked for you every day during the fine sleighing, and 
delayed making visits to many of my friends from the expectation of 
having you to accompany me. I entreat you not to let me weary myself 
with fruitless watching any longer, but come and gladden the heart, and 
enliven the spirits of your Jane. 

'< I suppose you will be pleased to hear that the gloom of the Demo- 
cratic war is again lightened by a Federal victory. The Constitution, 
Commodore Bainbridge, has made prize of the British frigate Java. The 
Commodore was wounded, but has recovered. The Java was so much 
injured that they were forced to sink her. Her commander died after 
the action, of his wounds : He left a wife and two children to mourn 
his loss. Commodore B. describes him as a brave officer and an amiable 
man. Miss Bainbridge gave me this account, and as she received it from 
her brother, who wrote to her by the same express that carried his mes- 
sages to Washington, I therefore think it must be nearly correct. I 
rejoice the more in the success of our Commodore as he has, tho' cour- 
ageous, been hitherto very unfortunate. My fingers are stiffened with 
the cold, I must therefore conclude by assuring you that 

" 1 remain, 

** Yours sincerely, 

"Jane C. Green. 

** My best love to your mamma and sisters, not forgetting my friend 
Eliza." 

Again, in April, when the cherry-trees were making 
Cherry Grove a place of loveliness, Jane C. Green sent 

197 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

to her friend Eliza and her sisters another of her 
chatty letters : 

*' I have just had one note from you, and I hear there is another fol- 
lowing. That is doing very well, and I trust you will not let me suffer 
again for the want of letters, as I am less able to endure famine now than 
ever. 

** I have nothing new to inform you of — politics is the topic of the 
day, and so completely does it occupy the attention of the community, 
that I begin to fear that it will not be admissible to introduce any other 
subject of conversation. That will be a sad stroke to me, as I generally 
keep silent in political discussions. I have read in an old tome that they 
were very bad for the complexion, symmetry of feature, sweetness of 
expression, etc. 

♦♦ Aunt Churchill was here to-day. Charles Gustavus is getting better. 
I have been some time engaged in reading Pope. His poetry is highly 
polished, but I think it sometimes appears overstrained. ' Windsor 
Forest' and ♦ The Temple of Fame' I admire exceedingly. His pas- 
torals are sickening. The * Iliad' and ♦ Odyssey' I have not seen, and 
I anticipate much pleasure in perusing them. 

" Tell my dear Matilda that I know her Johnny has too much gener- 
osity to wish to engross her entirely, but tell him that to preserve this 
good opinion of his cousin, he must see that his partner is kind to his 
friends. Now, my dear girl, you know that I must be nonsensical 
sometimes, and as I keep apartments in the fourth story to-day, you 
must make great allowances for exuberances. 

*' Given under my hand and seal this first day. 

"Jane C. Green." 

Those days of the War of 1812 were often full 
of dreariness for the old-time Jersey girls. The pray- 
ing for sweethearts and brothers away. The weeks 
of doubt and uncertainty, owing to the slowness with 
which news travelled. No gay silks and calimancoes 
from London delighted their simple hearts then. The 

198 



CINCINNATI HALL 



" Freehold beauty" most likely gave up sewing silver 
spangles on her gauzy gowns. All was gloom and talk 
of the latest victory or defeat. No wonder Jane Green, 
in her Cherry Grove, longed for her "dearest Eliza" 
to gladden her heart and enliven her spirits. Later 
the Henderson sleigh was brought forth from the Hen- 
derson stable, and " dearest Eliza" departed on the long 
journey to Maidenhead, warmly wrapped up in a great 
tippet and carrying a huge muff, while her little feet rested 
on a foot-warmer, and her mitted hands held a hot stone 
to protect them from the winter winds. 

It has been said all the Freehold neighborhood 
was entertained at Dr. Henderson's, regardless of station. 
General Washington, Governor William Paterson, and 
Judge Symmes honored it, the first having been a frequent 
visitor at the Henderson house burned by the British. 

Many of the pieces of furniture which graced the 
Hall are still in existence. The well-known Mrs. 
Flavel McGee (Miss Julia Randolph), a great-grand- 
daughter of Dr. Thomas Henderson, numbers several 
among her priceless collection of heirlooms, which 
includes specimens of Sheraton, Hipplewaite, Chipendale, 
and the French periods. On Dr. Henderson's little tea- 
table, where General Washington was once served cake 
and wine, Mrs. McGee has poured tea for almost every 
one very distinguished in New Jersey society. Many 
retain a pleasing picture of her bending over her antique 
silver in the salons of the McGee mansion. Her gown 
always a copy of a Romney, a Le Brun, or a Reynolds 
portrait, and she herself a beautiful vision in an eighteenth- 
century environment. 

199 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

Cincinnati Hall, the abode of hospitality, is rarely 
called by that name now. It still retains much of its 
old-time appearance, although it long ago passed out 
of the possession of the Henderson family and its 
happy period of prosperity. The Henderson girls are 
often spoken of in Freehold to-day, and the highest com- 
pliment a Monmouth octogenarian can pay a modem 
belle is to compare her to the doctor's lovely Eliza. 



200 



THE FORD MANSION 

MORRISTOWN 

WHICH STANDS NEXT TO MT. 
VERNON IN HISTORIC INTEREST 





1 

3LS 


^1 



HE house best known in Mor- 
ristown, and to all students of 
history throughout the State and 
country at large, is the carefully 
preserved Ford Mansion, now 
owned by the Washington As- 
sociation of New Jersey. There 
Washington and his military 
family lived from December, 1779, to June, 1780, as 
the guests of Mrs. Theodesia Ford, a daughter of the 
Rev. Timothy Johns, and widow of the gallant Colonel 
Jacob Ford, Junior. During that period of time — six 
months — a greater number of famous characters in the 
history of the Revolution stopped under its roof than in 
any other dwelling in America. 

The Fords were among the wealthiest and most promi- 
nent families of early Morristown, and their home, erected 
in 1774, was one of the finest dwellings in the country. 
At the beginning of 1776 Colonel Jacob Ford, Junior, 
made a compact with the Provincial Congress of New 
Jersey " to erect a powder-mill for the making of gun- 
powder, an article so essentially necessary at the present 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



time." The Congress agreed to "lend him two thousand 
pounds of the public money for one year without interest, 
on his giving satisfactory security for the same, to be 
repaid within the time of one year in good merchantable 
powder." The Ford gunpowder-mill did good service 
all through the war, although its owner died in January 

of 1777. 

Visiting "this historic spot to-day one finds no dis- 
cordant modern improvements to destroy its old-time 
charm. The thick planked walls of the house are 
structurally the same as when first erected, and the aged 
ivy, which Washington himself planted, clings to them 
tenderly. Even Mrs. Washington's garden, with its 
glorious view of fine ranges of hills, where the prim little 
lady watched for the first daffodils and early flowers in 
the spring of 1 780, is preserved with somewhat of its 
former Georgean quaintness. Inside the house, with the 
priceless treasures of hundreds of prominent New Jersey 
families, we can easily forget for a few minutes our 
modern life and environment and imagine it as the head- 
quarters of the army. 

During the early part of the first winter of Wash- 
ington's stay, his family, as the childless commander 
loved to call his wife and his young officers, endured 
many hardships. In January we find him writing to 
Quartermaster-General Green, whose duty it was to 
provide for him, that there was no kitchen to cook a 
dinner in, almost no room for servants, and that eigh- 
teen belonging to his family and all Mrs. Ford's were 
crowded together in her kitchen, "and scarce one of 
them able to speak for the colds they have." When 



THE FORD MANSION 



the weather grew milder these conditions changed, and 
the whole household revelled in the country, — as much, 
at least, as they dared, for Morristown was in constant 
alarm over the enemy which never appeared. The 
head-quarters was guarded by a life-corps of two hun- 
dred and fifty men, under the command of the hand- 
some Lieutenant William Colfax, who, like his friend 
Alexander Hamilton, then courting Betsey Schuyler, 
married into the Schuyler family,* so prominent in New 
York and New Jersey. 

From the old letters and tales which have come down 
to us we know that the ladies of the little army circle 
entered into the full zest of camp life. No doubt Mrs. 
Washington as the wife of the commander-in-chief of 
the army, in her draughty room and high up in her four- 
poster, exposed to the gaze of the guards by the windows, 
was happier than she was as the first President's wife in 
New York writing to a friend of her loneliness and the 
forms which bound her an angry prisoner of state. 

* Lieutenant William Colfax married Miss Hester Schuyler, the daugh- 
ter of Casparus Schuyler, of Pompton, New Jersey. During General 
Washington's stay at Towowa, a few miles away, he was on several 
occasions a guest at the Schuyler homestead. An amusing story is re- 
lated of her having made it a boast through life that she had never 
combed her own hair or put on her own shoes and stockings. Her eccen- 
tricities were many and varied ; she led her handsome husband anything but 
a peaceful existence. She had a violent aversion for the color black, and 
would not allow a black beast or bird near her home. There is a tra- 
dition that she kept to her chamber for a space of ten years owing to 
some small oiFence of her husband's, and when the time was up she 
came forth richly gowned, and drove to church in her great coach, as if 
nothing had happened, to the wonderment of the neighborhood. 

203 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

In the middle of April the household was made joy- 
ful by the arrival of the French minister, the Chevalier 
de la Luzerne, and a distinguished Spanish gentleman, 
Don Juan de Miralles, representing his court, bearing 
tidings of aid for the colonies. The countryside was 
breaking away from winter's bondage, and a white world 
filled with suffering seemed to be only a memory, so 
great was the influence of the cheerful news. On the 
night of April 24 a ball was given for the foreign guests 
at the Arnold Tavern,* then kept by a son of Erin 
named O'Hara. Hundreds of candles shone on one 
of the largest companies that had assembled for amuse- 
ment since the beginning of the war. The occasion 
was somewhat saddened by the illness of the Spanish 
envoy, who lay tossing with fever in one of the 
upper chambers of the Ford Mansion. He grew 
rapidly worse, and four days later he died. In the diary 
of Dr. Thacher there is a description of his funeral, 
which was attended with much pomp and ceremony. 
It reads : 

** I accompanied Dr. Schuyler to head-quarters to attend the funeral 
of M. de Miralles. The deceased was a gentleman of high rank in 
Spain, and had been about one year a resident with our Congress from 
the Spanish court. The corpse was dressed in rich state and exposed 
to public view, as is customary in Europe. The coffin was most 



* The Arnold Tavern is still standing somewhat modernized on the 
west side of the Morristown " Green." General Washington occupied it 
as his head-quarters during his first stay in Morristown in 1777. It was 
then owned by Colonel Jacob Arnold, the commander of a company of 
light horse, a detachment of which was on duty as body-guard of Gen- 
eral Livingston. 

204 



THE FORD MANSION 



splendid and stately, lined throughout with fine cambric, and covered 
on the outside with rich black velvet, and ornamented in a superb man- 
ner. The top of the coffin was removed to display the pomp and 
grandeur with which the body was decorated. It was in a splendid full 
dress, consisting of a scarlet suit, embroidered with rich gold lace, a 
three-cornered gold-laced hat, a genteel-cued wig, white silk stockings, 
large diamond shoe and knee buckles, a profusion of diamond rings deco- 
rated the fingers, and from a superb gold watch set with diamonds sev- 
eral rich seals were suspended. His Excellency, General Washington, 
with several other general officers, and members of Congress, attended 
the funeral solemnities and walked as chief mourners. The other offi- 
cers of the army, and numerous respectable citizens formed a splendid 
procession extending about one mile. The pall-bearers were six field- 
officers, and the coffin was borne on the shoulders of four officers of the 
artillery in fiill uniform. Minute-guns were fired during the procession, 
which greatly increased the solemnity of the occasion. A Spanish priest 
performed service at the grave in the Roman Catholic form. The coffin 
was enclosed in a box of plank, and in all the profiision of pomp and 
grandeur was deposited in the silent grave, in the common burying- 
ground near the church at Morristown — a guard is placed at the grave 
lest our soldiers should be tempted to dig for hidden treasure." 

From an old diagram of the Ford Mansion we learn 
that the rooms on the east of the main hall were retained 
by the Widow Ford. For many weary months her 
young son Timothy suffered in one of them from a 
gunshot wound. We are told that every morning as 
Washington left his bedroom he knocked at Tim- 
othy's door to ask how the young soldier had passed 
the night. And those who saw the kind attentions 
thought how beautiful they were in so great a man. 
The room on the west side was used as a dining-room, 
and there young Alexander Hamilton often presided at 
the head of the chief's table and convulsed the company 

205 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

with his ready wit. The east room on the second floor 
was used by General and Mrs. Washington as a bed- 
chamber, and the other rooms in the house served the 
members of the staff in like capacity. After Washing- 
ton's almost pitiful letter to General Green, a log build- 
ing was erected on the east side of the house to serve 
as a kitchen, adding greatly to the comfort of the 
inmates. 

All these quaint apartments are filled with the lares 
et penates of many long-dead Jerseyites. The great 
punch-bowl given to Colonel Richard Varick by Wash- 
ington; rare Lowestoft plates and heavy cut glass once 
forming a part of Mt. Vernon's china-closet ; the silver 
urn purchased by Hamilton when he had grown rich 
from his legal practice ; a little tea-caddy given by Lafay- 
ette to some fair maid of the long ago, seem to beckon 
the passing antiquarian. In one of the rooms is a large 
collection of old English pottery, including many 
examples of Staffordshire and Wedgewood, and only 
excelled by a few collections in America. The many 
beautiful examples of the furniture of our forefathers, the 
rare antique chintzes printed from copper plates, and the 
collection of old prints would take almost a volume in 
themselves if adequately described. 

From the walls of the wide hall and some of the 
rooms many brave and patriotic men and women of 
colonial days gaze peacefully down on the time-worn 
floor. There are redcoats, too, among them. Notably 
the handsome Colonel Tarleton, who is said to have 
caused a score of Tory hearts to bleed in America when 
he gave his affections to the noted Mrs. Robinson in 

206 



THE FORD MANSION 



England.* All the delightful traditions we have heard 
of His Excellency General Washington tripping minuets 
with Mrs. Knox, of Kitty Livingston's witty squabbles 
with President Witherspoon of the College of New 
Jersey on his visit to Morristown, and of Mrs. Washing- 
ton presenting her favorite officers with hair cushions and 
other articles of her handiwork would be verified, and 
other interesting occurrences we have no knowledge of 
told in addition, if the boards had the gift of speech. 

Two oft-repeated anecdotes are related of the Washing- 
tons when occupying the Ford Mansion. The first is of 
Lady Washington. Not many weeks after she had passed 
through Trenton, surrounded by her Virginians, on her 
way to Morristown, the most prominent of the ladies in 
Morris County resolved to visit her at the Ford Mansion 
in a body. Dressed in silks and brocades, they called in 
state, and found her ladyship " knitting," attired in a sim- 
ple gown covered by " a speckled apron." She received 
them very graciously, but after an exchange of courtesies 
resumed her knitting. As they idly sat about her she 
delivered her famous rebuke, which is worthy of a 
place in history and has kept alive the story, — 

" American ladies should be patterns of industry to their country- 
women, because the separation from the mother- country will dry up the 
sources whence many of our comforts have been derived. We must 
become independent by our determination to do without what we can- 
not make ourselves. While our husbands and brothers are examples of 
patriotism, we must be examples of thrift and economy." 



* Mrs. Robinson, the actress and mistress of George IV., then Prince 
of Wales, is familiar to this generation in prints of her many beautiful 
portraits by Lawrence, Reynolds, and others. 

207 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

The other is of General Washington's enjoyment of 
the ludicrous. It was reported by General John Doughty, 
a revered name in Morristown history. He often told 
his friends that he heard of Washington laughing aloud 
but once during his stay in Morristown in the years 
1779 and 1780. The exception took place in the 
spring of the latter year. Washington had purchased 
a young mettlesome horse of great strength, but un- 
broken to the saddle. A townsman and boaster, who 
made loud proclamation of his horsemanship, solicited 
and received permission from the general to break the 
horse for him. Washington and many men of the 
army assembled to see the horse receive its first lesson. 
The horse, capering and rearing, was taken to a field 
and there the man, after many preliminary flourishes, 
essayed to mount him. He finally succeeded by a leap, 
but was no sooner seated than the horse made a " stiff 
leap," threw down his head and up his heels, casting his 
rider over his head in a sort of elliptical curve. Wash- 
ington, gazing at the man sprawling in the dirt, but 
unhurt, entirely lost his gravity, and laughed aloud 
so heartily that the tears rolled down his cheeks. 

No one visits the Ford Mansion to-day without feeling 
a profound reverence for its early associations. Next 
Mt. Vernon it should occupy a shrine in the heart of 
every American, for there Washington hoped and suf- 
fered, and laid the plans which ultimately brought the 
war to a close. 



208 



THE CAMPFIELD HOUSE 

MORRISTOWN 



THE SCENE OF YOUNG ALEXANDER HAMILTON'S 
ROMANTIC COURTSHIP OF BETSEY SCHUYLER 




EAR the corner of Morris Street 
and Oliphant Lane Is the small 
two-storied house where Surgeon- 
General John Cochrane had his 
head-quarters during the camp at 
Morristown, It was the home 
of Dr. Jabez Campfield, a sur- 
geon in Spencer's regiment, then 
in the wilds of Pennsylvania. 

Many years before the Revolution Dr. Cochrane had 
married General Philip Schuyler's only sister. In the 
spring of 1780, when the head-quarters house saw most 
of its gaiety and merrymaking, Elizabeth Schuyler, the 
general's second daughter, journeyed by coach to Mor- 
ristown, under escort, to visit her aunt. From all the 
accounts history has recorded, this maiden from Albany 
possessed a most pleasing personality. Colonel Tench 
Tilghman,* a close friend of Alexander Hamilton's, on 

* Colonel Tench Tilghman was one of Alexander Hamilton's favor- 
ite companions during the army's stay at Morristown. At the time of 
Elizabeth Schuyler's arrival at the Cochrane House he was in love with 
his cousin Anna Maria Tilghman, whom he met for the first time a few 
14 209 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



meeting her for the first time, described her as being " a 
brunette, with the most good-natured Hvely dark eyes I 
ever saw, which threw a beam of good temper and be- 
nevolence over her entire countenance." In her portraits 
she undoubtedly possesses a fair share of physical attrac- 
tions, and perhaps her beauty was heightened a little at 
the time she lived by her father's wealth and high social 
position in the colonies. 

Girls of the eighteenth century, minus hoop and high 
head-dress, were very much the same as girls of to-day, 
and it would be interesting to know Elizabeth Schuy- 
ler's thoughts as she gazed out of her coach window on 
primitive Morristown. Did she dream that she was 
soon to reach the greatest epoch of maidenhood*? No 
mediocre suitor Destiny had marked out for her, but 
the Prince Charming of the army, Alexander Hamil- 
ton, who shortly after her arrival laid his heart at her 
feet. 

Alexander Hamilton at that period was still under 
twenty-one. He had been the commander-in-chief's 
aide-de-camp and secretary for nearly three years, and 
then enjoyed his special favor and confidence. His 
Scotch shrewedness and perseverance, inherited from his 
father, and a share of his French mother's vivacity and 
tact had combined to make him one of the most 
remarkable figures of the time. Born on the Island 
of Nevis, in the West Indies, he early evinced a desire 
to get on in the world. When but thirteen he was 

months before, when on a furlough. Tradition says he helped along 
Hamilton's courtship by ofttimes assuming some of his duties. At the 
close of the war he married his cousin. Miss Tilghman. 

210 



THE CAMPFIELD HOUSE 



employed in the counting-house of Nicholas Cruger, 
at St. Croix. This gentleman was connected with sev- 
eral old New York families. In early life, during a visit 
to Santa Cruz, he married a native heiress descended 
from the French nobility, and established a permanent 
home on the island, journeying to New York City 
every two or three years. On one of his voyages, 
during the latter part of the Revolution, his ship 
was captured by a British frigate, and he was taken a 
prisoner to New York City. Through the influence of 
the Walton family, high in Tory circles, he was released 
on parole, and made his home with them in the famous 
Walton House. He sympathized with the colonies, 
although he did not take an active part in the struggle 
for independence, and on the day of General Wash- 
ington's inauguration was one of the guests of the 
New Jersey Livingstons, following the great chief's 
barge from Elizabethtown to New York. Some years 
after Alexander Hamilton's death, his niece by marriage, 
Catherine Church, wedded Bentram Peter Cruger, a son 
of Nicholas Cruger. 

While employed by Nicholas Cruger, young Hamil- 
ton wrote to his boyhood friend Edward Stevens the 
famous letter which has often been pubUshed. In it 
he says: 

'* My ambition is prevalent, so that I contemn the grovelling condi- 
tion of a clerk, or the like, to which my fortune condemns me, and 
vi^ould willingly risk my life, though not my character, to exalt my station. 
I am confident, Ned, that my youth excludes me from any hopes of im- 
mediate preferment, nor do I desire it ; but I mean to prepare the way 
for futurity. I'm no philosopher, you see, and may be justly said to 

211 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



build castles in the air ; my folly makes me ashamed, and beg you'll 
conceal it ; yet, Neddy, we have seen such schemes successful, when 
the projector is constant. I shall conclude by saying I wish there was 
a war." 

These longings and restive desires to escape the dull 
and dreary routine of a mercantile career soon incited him 
to write an article for a newspaper, which attracted the 
attention of the governor of St. Croix, and that worthy 
interested himself in having Hamilton sent to America. 
Arriving at Boston, he set out at once for New York. 
While in the latter city he delivered some of the 
letters of introduction given to him by Mr. Cruger 
and his old tutor, the Rev. Hugh Knox, and through 
the advice of new friends he soon started for Francis 
Barber's grammar-school at Elizabethtown. Carefully 
guarded in the pocket of his coat was a letter of 
introduction to William Livingston, whose many subse- 
quent acts of kindness to him formed a firm foundation 
for his meteoric career. This prominent man was so 
pleased with his respectful address and yet sprightly bear- 
ing on their first meeting that he invited him to live with 
his family at the Hall. In such an environment as the 
cultivated Livingston household a youth of Alexander 
Hamilton's temperament could not fail to blossom forth 
as he did. Liked by the head of the household, — who 
was very chary of his liking, — made much of by Mrs. 
Livingston, and adopted by the Livingston daughters 
as a brother and playfellow, fortune indeed smiled on his 
auspicious advent into the Jerseys. 

A new girl in Morristown, and one as celebrated as 
Miss Schuyler, did not long remain unnoticed in the 

212 



THE CAMPFIELD HOUSE 



war-time days of 1780, when every chance of pleasure 
that relieved the dull tedium of the routine at head- 
quarters was eagerly pursued by the officers, many of 
whom began to frequent the Campfield House ; and 
young Hamilton was among the first to pay ardent court 
to his " Betsey," as he soon commenced to call her. 

Life at camp, with its hardships and elements of 
danger, was not without attractions. There was always 
the glorious thought for these brave men and women 
that they were helping to mould the destiny of the 
country, and in the intervals between the alarms of 
the enemy many of the refined pleasures of life were 
enjoyed. During the minuets in the wide hall of the 
chief's dwelling our young lover found ample oppor- 
tunity to whisper sweet nothings into his charmer's ear. 
In the games of forfeits he could always steal to her side 
to obtain a love-knot, and he most likely found ample 
opportunity to ride with her over the hills and vales of 
Morris County, then in the first flush of early spring, — 
a pretty setting for a budding passion. 

After a few months had passed, all the members of 
the Washington household, Dr. Cochrane, — dubbed by 
his friends " good Dr. Bones," — and his wife at the little 
house by the lane were aware of the romance unfolding 
before their eyes. About this time General Schuyler 
arrived at the head-quarters house to confer with General 
Washington on needed reforms in the army, and with 
his sanction the youthful pair were betrothed and the 
wedding talked over for an early date. 

There was another Revolutionary love-affair in Gen- 
eral Schuyler's family which history has scarcely noted, 

213 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

— overshadowed as it is by that of Hamilton and his 
" Betsey," — and that is the elopement of Angelica, his 
eldest daughter, with John Barker Church,* a gentleman 

* A portrait of Mr. and Mrs. John Barker Church and their chil- 
dren, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, is in the possession of the Misses Cruger, 
of Cruger Island in the Hudson. A small painting on copper of Mrs. 
Elizabeth Church, by an unknown artist, and a miniature of John Barker 
Church, by Cosway, are owned by Mrs. Benjamin S. Church, of New 
York City. 

In the year 1790 John Barker Church, with Lord George Cavendish, 
was elected to Parliament from Wendover, — referred to in a letter of the 
time by the rather inelegant sobriquet of *' rotten borough." 

Nothing has been written on the family's gala period in England, 
although many memories are still alive. Their old home in Sackville 
Street is still standing, and until a kw years ago was quite a prosperous 
lodging-house. There on the birthday of one of Lord Gage's daugh- 
ters the Churches gave a famous ball to " Prince Florizel" and his charmer 
Mrs. Fitzherbert. The house, though a large one, was not adequate 
for the great company invited, and a dancing-pavilion was temporarily 
erected over Lord Melbourne's gardens in the rear. The Duchess de 
Noailles was the belle of the occasion, wearing a gown embroidered with 
brilliants and dancing many times with His Royal Highness the Prince 
of Wales. In those days Philip and his younger brother John used to 
entertain crowds of Eton school-fellows at Down House, their father's 
country home near Windsor. They always made their journeys on the 
Thames in the royal boats, by permission of the Prince of Wales. 
** Florizel" was very fond of their father, and a great admirer of his 
personal beauty, although he sometimes laughingly spoke of him as " the 
French Commissary." 

Philip Church made many friends among the sons of the gentry when 
at Eton, and in after years, when he returned to America and became 
his uncle Alexander Hamilton's secretary, he frequently corresponded 
with them. An amusing and hitherto unpublished letter received by 
him from the notorious Sir Philip Francis, during a second visit to Eng- 
land, is in existence to-day. It reads : 

214 



THE CAMPFIELD HOUSE 



of fortune masquerading in America under the nom de 
guerre of Carter. The vivacious and clever Angelica, 
who far outshone the more retiring Elizabeth, met him 

*'July S^b 1812 
** Dear Sir 

*' I wish you would rite me a line by any days post in the present 
week to let me know whether u have any thauts of returning into the 
bosom of your family a fond de I'Amerique. I want to send many 
instructions to my friend the great Cadwallader, I wish he had been 
crissened Caractacus, particularly to have no mercy on my Debtors ; but 
to remit me the amount as fast as he can rescue the computed value of 
my lands, now theirs out of their Bowels. 

** From this I proceed to Tunbridge Wells on Tuesday next, where 
it seems fit that u should pay a visit. I can furnish u with food, but not 
with Lodging, or washing, much less raiment. 

" Phx. 

'<N.B. — I have just received a letter from a fine lady ending thus 
ures til deth." 

To enumerate the friends of the Churches in London it would be 
necessary to repeat many of the names which added lustre to the gilded, 
glowing days when Dame Fashion by her extravagances made the first 
gentleman of Europe pawn the crown-jewels of the British empire. 
One of the most notable was the brilliant Charles J. Fox, who formed 
a strong attachment for them. During the space of a few years he bor- 
rowed a fortune from John B. Church, and the latter' s descendants still 
possess some of the L O. U.'s, which a wit of the reign of George IV. 
termed Fox's "new currency." The following is an unpublished 
letter received by John B. Church, in New York City, from Charles 
J. Fox, when the latter was made Prime Minister of England : 

"June s"' 1806 
"My Dear Sir : 

" I take the opportunity of the first mail since my entrance into office 
to repeat to you my assurances of friendship and regard, and the deep 

215 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

at a Philadelphia assembly at the beginning of the war. 
Possessed of dashing manners and almost godlike beauty, 
it is small wonder that he attracted the attention of the 
maiden. From his mother, Elizabeth Barker, celebrated 
at the court of George III. for her loveliness, he inherited 
the languishing blue eyes and finely-chiselled features 
which Reynolds and Cosway have immortalized. Al- 
though but a few years past his school-days, he was 
already the hero of many adventures and a breaker of 
hearts. To escape a marriage with a wealthy kinswoman, 
whose Lowestoft estates joined his own, and the conse- 
quences of a duel, he fled from London without baggage 
or credentials ; and it was under his assumed name that 
he wooed and won the most brilliant daughter of one of 
New York's first families. General Schuyler at first did 
not approve of the marriage, but through the influence of 

sense I have of the many essential obligations you have conferred on me. 
If it should be in my power either by the share of power which is pecu- 
liarly my own, or by my influences with my coUegues, to show my 
kindness or civility to you or yours it will give me highest satisfaction. . . . 
** With respect to public affairs there seems to be getting up on your 
side of the water a heat, that has the appearance at least of being very 
alarming ; as the business between the two countries is chiefly in my 
department, I am sure you know me well enough to be sure that 
every thing possible will be done to settle the matter amicably. Lord 
Selkirk who is going as envoy is a very well informed and sensible 
young man, and if you happen to meet I am sure you will be pleased 
with him. 

*' My best respects to Mrs. Church, and good wishes to the whole 
family. 

" I am, my dear sir, 
'♦ Most truly your faithful & obliged servant 

"C. J. Fox." 
216 



THE CAMPFIELD HOUSE 



the Patroon Van Rensselaer, who encouraged and shel- 
tered the young couple at his manor, he gradually 
relented, and finally received them with open arms at 
the Albany homestead. 

The careers of Alexander Hamilton and John B. 
Church possess many instances of striking similarity.* 
They both were of versatile energetic temperaments, and 
Fate decreed them lives that were veritable marches 
of triumph. While one was moulding the destiny of 
America, the other became a power in the London world 
which circled about a throne. The daughter of General 
Schuyler, as Mrs, Church the fair American, was one of 
the first of our matrons to win pronounced social success 
in England. She spoke French like a native, having 
learned the language from her father, who had been edu- 
cated in a French Huguenot school at New Rochelle. 
Her card-parties were always attended by the highest 
nobles of Europe. The great Mrs. Sarah Siddons acted 
in her drawing-room, and George IV. once said of her 
that she was one of the brightest stars in the world he 
knew as a young man. 

Elizabeth Schuyler never longed for her elder sister's 

* John B. Church fought a duel with Colonel Burr in the summer of 
1799, on the same ground where Alexander Hamilton subsequently fell. 
At a dinner given by Chancellor Livingston, Mr. Church in the course 
of conversation mentioned a report he had heard that the Holland Land 
Company had cancelled a bond for twenty thousand dollars against Burr 
for services rendered in the Legislature. This reached the ears of Colonel 
Burr, and he demanded an apology. Mr. Church declined any further 
than to say that perhaps he was indiscreet in repeating the accusation 
without fuller authority. This was not accepted, a challenge was sent, 
and they met and exchanged shots without effect. 

217 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

great social triumphs. It is true she was one of the 
ladies of the Washington circle, but, simple and retiring, 
she was happier in her domestic life than when forced to 
face the glare of candles and the din of drawing-rooms. 
" Betsey," the Morristown sweetheart, always occupied 
the first place in Hamilton's heart, whatever may have 
been written to the contrary.* Through their strangely 
eventful lives they walked hand in hand ; and long after 
his death, when she sat alone in her purple-lined pew in 
old St. John's, on Varick Street, New York City, she was 
still devoted to his memory. When a very old lady and 
given to reminiscences, she is said by those who knew 
her to have spent fully a fourth of her time talking of 
the Hamilton of her youth, — the handsome boy who 
paid his court to her at a little house on a Jersey 
lane. 

Alexander Hamilton never did anything in his life 
without the force of his whole nature, and surely he was 
an ideal lover. The letters which followed his leaving 

* In a recent work on Alexander Hamilton there is a most cruel, and 
generally false, sketch of the woman best known to the world as Madam 
Jumel. Friends who had her confidence in life deny that her affection 
for Alexander Hamilton was more than platonic and that she tried to 
estrange him from his wife. She was a faithful and loving helpmate to 
Stephen Jumel, and always spoke of him with tenderness. During 
her last years she possessed a fondness for talking about her brilliant 
career, and if one mentioned the name of Alexander Hamilton in con- 
versation it never secured more than a passing interest. 

It is a shameful act to endeavor to ruin the good fame of a woman 
remembered with affection and respect by many people still living. No 
one will ever be able to answer Madam Jumel' s traducers, for the secrets 
of her life lie locked in her silent breast. 

218 



THE CAMPFIELD HOUSE 



camp on various missions for General Washington were 
enough in themselves to storm the heart of any maiden. 
In a very beautiful one he writes to the object of his 
affections, after telling her many times that he loves her, — 

" I suspect, however, if others knew the charm of my sweetheart 
as well as I do, I should have a great number of competitors. I wish 
I could give you an idea of her. You have no conception of how 
sweet a girl she is. It is only in my heart that her image is truly drawn. 
She has a lovely form, and a mind still more lovely ; she is all goodness, 
the gentlest, the dearest, the tenderest of her sex. Oh, Betsey, how I 
love her !" 

The old Campfield House was moved many years ago 
from its original site to the plot it now occupies. The 
side windows no longer peep over the hill-top at the 
large Ford Mansion, as they used to do in days gone by. 
The Campfield garden, where Dr. Jabez Campfield in his 
diary tells us that he had so many fair flowers and choice 
vegetables, is now occupied by modern houses facing 
Oliphant Lane. The Campfield House itself is very 
little changed. Its interior has been somewhat modern- 
ized, but its exterior still looks as it did when young 
Hamilton went forth from the Ford Mansion to court 
his " Betsey." 



219 



THE SANSAY HOUSE 

MORRISTOWN 



WHERE A DANCING-MASTER 
GAVE A BALL TO A MARQUIS 




|N De Hart Street, hidden some- 
what by the fohage of giant trees 
from the spires of the lower Green, 
is the old dwelling of Monsieur 
Sansay, the courtly dancing- 
master of early Morristown, and 
one of the most pathetic char- 
acters in its history. 
Any interesting long resident of Morristown who may 
be asked for information about Monsieur Sansay is sure 
to answer, " Why, he was the man who gave the dance 
to Lafayette ;" but further than that they cannot go, 
for his past is hidden by the shroud of mystery, and 
tradition says the name Itself was but a nom de guerre. 

It was many years after the dreadful Reign of Terror 
in France when Monsieur Sansay first appeared in 
Morristown. Count Auguste Louis de Singeron, one 
of the gallant band of officers who defended the king 
on the August night it ran blood at the Tuileries, had 
long ago taken his wares away from the corner by St. 
Paul's in New York City ; Madame De Bonneville, the 
friend of Thomas Paine, had closed her French school 



THE SANSAY HOUSE 



in the same city ; and the famous Talleyrand no longer 
sat at his window in Newark counting the days to the 
time he was free to return to " la belle France." They 
had all gone like so many birds of passage, — a pic- 
turesque phrase of early American society was ended ; 
and comtes, vicomtes, and others bearing the titles of 
France's fallen nobility no longer masqueraded as 
waiters, barbers, shopmen, and in like menial vocations. 

The people of Morristown were quite familiar with 
French emigres when Monsieur Sansay arrived in their 
midst. The town, like every other noted spot in New 
Jersey, had its French visitors, and a few stray reminis- 
ences of them still live in the minds of some who 
cherish their memory. One still sees the handsome 
Thebaud, whose father had been of the royal body- 
guard to the unfortunate King Louis XVI., telling 
stories of the French court, fair Trainon and its 
lovely demoiselles, and the beauty of Marie An- 
toinette the Austrian, to a group of rustics in 
one of the village emporiums ; another remembers 
Vincent Boisoubin, an elegant aristocrat of the old 
regime who detested Lafayette as " le traitre La- 
fayette ;" and yet another cherished the tale of a 
Comte Massue eating in one of the rooms of the 
Sansay House and crying from sheer joy between each 
mouthful at the sight of his little countryman. 

Some time about the year 1807 Monsieur Sansay 
erected the house on De Hart Street, and there he gave 
notice to the public that he was an instructor in the 
art of terpsichore. Early in the history of Morristown 
dancing seems to have taken a strong hold on the 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



aristocratic portion of its small population. In the 
memorable winter and spring of 1780 there were the 
assemblies at O'Hara's Continental Ball-Room. The 
subscription list* for these affairs is in the possession 
of the Biddle family of Philadelphia, and it is most in- 
teresting, as it tells us that the five or six dances cost no 
less than thirteen thousand six hundred dollars. Our 
currency was at a low premium in those days, and the 
thirty-four gentlemen, headed by General Washington, 
who paid four hundred dollars apiece for a few even- 
ing's enjoyment could have purchased very little with 
a like sum, as " silver hair-powder, such as the French 
court uses," then cost three hundred dollars a box. 

After the army had gone and the best people of the 
town no longer attended assemblies on the officers' 
invitations, the few who loved their quadrilles and 
morris-dances still danced on. The ladies discarded 
muskmelon hats and brocaded stomachers for the little- 
waisted, slim Greek gowns of the directoire, and viewed 
with favor the dances the expatriates had brought them. 
Gay expatriates they ofttimes were, and they still saw in 
their minds' eyes the Place Royale, St. Cloud, Versailles, 
and the Louvre basking in the sunlight and untouched by 
the bloody fingers of the new France of the Sans-Culottes, 

*This paper reads as follows: "The subscribers agree to pay the 
sums annexed to their respective names, and an equal quota of any fur- 
ther expense which may be incurred in the promotion and support of a 
dancing assembly to be held in Morristown the present winter of 1780." 
Among the names it contains are those of Generals Knox, Stirling, 
Wilkinson, and Greene ; Colonels Hamilton, Jackson, Hand, Erskine, 
Baron de Kalb, and others. 

222 



THE SANSAY HOUSE 



and so they had the heart to be merry among the 
more simple-lived Americans, They had forgotten the 
horrors of the Conciergerie, La Force, and Des Carmes. 

When little Sansay opened his dancing-room, a few 
years later, Morristown was ready for him. In the 
morning, before the hour of eight, was his time for the 
children, and hundreds of eager boys and girls in the 
long ago trooped to his house after the sun had risen 
and laughingly peered into the windows. Their 
older brothers and sisters came later, and the Sansay 
who met them was more elegant, — a Sansay, tradition 
says, appearing in all the glaring impotence of a silk and 
broadcloth attire a trifle the worse for wear. 

Many and many an aspirant longing and stumbling 
for the grace of a Nash or a Brummel he initiated in the 
mysteries of the feather step, the spring step, and all the 
intricate mazes of the courtly dances of the old regime. 
At stated intervals of once a month Monsieur Sansay 
held his exhibition days, and on such occasions many 
proud mothers would rustle up the stairs leading to the 
dance-room to view their childrens' progress with de- 
lighted eyes. Then it was that the little dancing-mas- 
ter was happiest. Like an aged butterfly under the 
influence of the sunshine he would flit and pirouette over 
the floor with his pupils, now and then pausing with a 
grandiose manner to compliment some blushing damsel 
on her pas leger or bel air. From one corner of the 
room would come the notes of the harpsichord tinkling 
protestingly the sweet melodies Sansay had learned in his 
youth in the Salles de Dance of the West Indies. " Now 
swing this way, mes petites" he would call out as he 

223 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

essayed a movement. " All ready for the minuet ? It 
will entrance you, mes dames.'" With bows to his smiling 
patronesses, he would form the pupils in lines. Then a 
clap of his hands was the signal for the most graceful of 
dances to begin. Those were happy days, for at that 
time the clergy of Morristown permitted their flocks to 
practice the graces of their ancestors, and poor Terpsi- 
chore was not held to be in league with the devil. 

For the long contemplated arrival of the Marquis de 
Lafayette from Paterson, on July 14, 1825, Monsieur 
Sansay arranged the memorable ball which has caused 
his name to go down as the most famous dancing-master 
in New Jersey history. On that evening, after the much- 
feted marquis had finished dining at the home of 
Charles H. Ogden, a noted citizen living at the corner 
of Market Street and the Green, all the well-known 
Morristowners of that period hastened to the Sansay 
dancing-room. There by the lights of myriads of wax 
candles the hero-worshippers braved the hot summer 
weather by dancing and feasting in honor of the popular 
idol. 

The Palladium of Liberty^ the Morristown paper of 
that day, does not contain an account of the assemblage 
and a description of their costumes like our modern 
journals, so we will have to picture the company our- 
selves. The most important and wealthy men of the 
town were all on the reception committee, and we can 
see them with their good wives a pompous line along 
the wall. On the floor the pretty Morristown girls are 
whirling about with their country cavaliers in some 
merry waltz or gallop. There were others besides 

224 



THE SANSAY HOUSE 



country-bred youths present that night, too ; for it is 
said at least one bevy of gay city sparks drove over by 
post-chaise from the Forest Garden at Paterson to share 
in the festivities. 

Some time after Sansay's ball for Lafayette the popu- 
larity of the little Frenchman's dancing-school began 
to wane. The rigid Presbyterians talked of too much 
dancing in Alorristown and of a set of young people 
growing up pleasure-loving and ungodly. The dancing- 
classes began to thin rapidly, and affairs reached a crisis 
when the Rev. Albert Barnes, the Presbyterian clergy- 
man, preached a fiery sermon against them, even reviling 
the personal character of the little Frenchman. 

Although still upheld by many of the best of the 
townspeople, poor Sansay was too much of a 
gentleman not to take the matter to heart. He soon 
sold his house for a very small part of the sum it had 
cost him, bade good-by to his old friends, and left by 
coach one morning for Elizabethtown, that one spot 
in New Jersey which always held out welcoming arms 
to the exiles of France. Mystery shrouds his death as 
well as his life, for there is a tradition that, becoming 
a prey to melancholia, he hung himself in one of those 
old houses on the outskirts of that town, and another 
that he came back to die in his former Morristown 
home. The first tale is probably true ; but we could 
think of his pitiful fate with less sorrow if we knew 
he really died in Elizabethtown, for there at that time 
some of the customs and traditions of the France of the 
Capets he loved still lingered. 

The house he built on De Hart Street was purchased 
15 225 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

by Jacob King, a member of the well-known King 
family still prominent in Morris County, and was after- 
wards sold to General Joseph Revere, a grandson of 
Paul Revere, of Revolutionary fame. The dancing-hall 
where Monsieur Sansay gave a ball to a marquis was 
years ago divided into bedrooms, but the old house is in 
many respects unaltered. 



226 



THE CONDICT HOUSE 

MORRISTOWN 



WHERE MRS. SILAS CONDICT GAVE SEW- 
ING-BEES FOR HER COUNTRY'S WELFARE 




In the north side of the Sussex 
Turnpike Road, leading to the 
town, there stood until recently 
a two-story hip-roofed house 
very similar to the Campfield 
dwelling. During the Revolu- 
tion and up to the dawn of the 

_ nineteenth century it was the 

home of Counsellor Condict, a noted Morristown patriot. 
The Condict family is one of the oldest in Morristown, 
having settled there when it was known as New Hanover. 
Silas Condict, the Counsellor, as he is always called, 
was born in 1737, in a house on what is now Mills 
Street. At the age of twenty-two he began the 
study of surveying, and shortly afterwards married his 
first wife, Phoebe Day. Upon her decease he espoused 
Abigail Bryam. She was a true colonial dame, and 
by her services to the cause won the regard of Gov- 
ernor Livingston and the love of many a brave soldier 
while the army was encamped at Morristown. The 
gallant Colonel Ebenezer Condict, who succumbed 
to the dread scourge of smallpox in the winter of 

227 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

^111 •>* ^^^ ^ brother of the Counsellor. Early in 
life he married Abigail Alden, a descendant of John 
Alden, of " Mayflower" fame, and they often visited at 
the Condict House. 

Mrs. Silas Condict was present when Martha Wash- 
ington delivered her famous rebuke to the Morristown 
ladies in the Ford Mansion ; but she did not feel ashamed 
of herself, as some of the others declared they were. She 
was a tireless knitter, and early in 1 779 she organized the 
knitting-bees which were held at the Condict House for 
the benefit of the stockingless soldiers. It is a tradition 
that the knitting-needles flew so fast on these occasions 
that Governor Livingston praised their owners for their 
industry and noble work. 

Silas Condict became a member of the legislature of 
the province of New Jersey in 1776. Later he was 
elected a member of the Provincial Congress and also 
president of the Committee of Safety. Many of the 
meetings of the latter organization were held at his 
homestead, and several were attended by General 
Washington. He was a notable surveyor and mapped 
out thousands of acres of New Jersey land. 

The Counsellor was a violent Whig and warmly 
championed his country's welfare. There is a story 
told of his capturing some Tories, at the beginning of 
the war, for minor offences. In the old jail at the north 
corner of the village green they were incarcerated for 
many weeks. When at last set free, they planned to 

* The Rev. Timothy Johns, famous for having administered the 
Sacrament to General Washington when in Morristown, lost sixty-eight 
of his flock by the sourge of smallpox in that year. 

228 



THE CONDICT HOUSE 



revenge themselves on their captor. Not far from the 
Condict House was a large meadow swamp, and there 
they lay in wait for a considerable time, hoping to take 
him dead or alive. Becoming weary of watching for 
him, one of their number went to his house to make 
inquiries as to his whereabouts. The Counsellor was 
really at home, but his wife, suspicious of the man's 
appearance, told him that her husband was in Trenton. 
The news was carried to his comrades in the swamp, 
and the disheartened band left the region with their 
threats of vengeance unfulfilled. 

Silas Condict, like his rebel governor, vowed he would 
never be taken alive by the enemy, and his home was 
fortified to withstand sudden attacks. After the battle of 
Princeton several British officers, with their serving-men, 
in charge of Americans, were quartered on the Condict 
household until their exchange could be effected. Ac- 
cording to one account, the British occupied one side of 
the house and the Americans the other, and a most un- 
comfortable time the family had with the altercations 
constantly arising. 

One young officer of impetuous temper owned a 
vicious dog, which created great consternation among 
the household and slaves. The Britisher, when ap- 
proached on the subject, haughtily refused to part with 
it. Finally, Condict took the matter in hand and ordered 
it to be put out ; and out it went, although the youth 
drew his sword and the eye-witnesses expected the Coun- 
sellor to be instantly run through. 

Many famous American generals shared the Condict 
hospitality during the war ; and there was a saying among 

229 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

the officers encamped at Morristown " that victuals were 
always waiting at Dame Condict's." 

In 1799 Silas Condict left his house on the Sussex 
Road, and moved with his family to a larger one he 
had erected on the present Cutter Street. There he died 
soon afterwards. 

He had no sons, and therefore adopted Colonel 
Ebenezer's son Silas the second, who became one of 
his heirs and inherited much of his property. Silas 
Condict the second, on coming of age, married Char- 
lotte Ford, a daughter of Jonathan Ford, and a great- 
granddaughter of Jonathan Dickinson, famous as the 
founder of the College of New Jersey and the author 
of that quaint volume, "Familiar Letters to a Gentleman, 
by a Minister of the Gospel at Elizabeth-Town." 
Charlotte Condict was worthy of her illustrious parent- 
age, and started the first Sunday-school in New Jersey 
at her small home at Littleton in 1810. 

The old Condict House was called the Hyndshaw 
House for many years, as it was owned and occupied by 
Rev. James Hyndshaw, whose wife was a great-grand- 
daughter of Silas Condict. Although of plain exterior, 
the mantels and wood-carvings in its rooms were quite 
elaborate with handwork. It was destroyed a short 
time ago, much to the sorrow of many of Morristown's 
old citizens, for it was regarded as one of the venerable 
links connecting the present Morristown with the 
village of long ago. 



230 



THE STIRLING MANOR 

STIRLING 

WHERE THE DAUGHTER OF AN AMERICAN PEER 
WEDDED THE MATRIMONIAL PRIZE OF NEW YORK 




URROUNDED by the blue Ber- 
{' nard hills, near the present hamlet 
of Stirling, was an old mansion 
famous in history for having been 
the country residence of the 
American peer, William Alex- 
[ ander, better known as Lord 
Stirling. A portion of it is still 
in existence, embedded in a modern dwelling. It was 
erected in the year 1761 by this gentleman, who stands 
forth in his period like some brilliant figure in romance. 
Born to all the advantages of wealth and high position, 
he rode through life on the triumphal car of hereditary 
greatness. Fortunately, he had nobility of soul as well 
as of name, and his arrogance and pomposity, maligned 
and ridiculed by the society of his time, is easily over- 
shadowed at this late day by the many great services he 
rendered his country. 

In 1761 Lord Stirling had just returned from abroad. 
While in England he had pushed his claim to the Earl- 
dom of Stirling, which had been held in abeyance for 
a number of years. All his efforts proved unsuccessful. 

231 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

But the final decree of the House of Lords did not 
dampen his spirits to any great degree, if we can judge 
by the manner in which he journeyed home,* He ar- 
rived in New York on the man-of-war " Alcide," after a 
voyage of three months. There his valet, French hair- 
dresser, lackeys, chair-bearers, and a wardrobe of new 
foreign fashions made him the sensation of the hour in 
the salons of the fine houses then facing the Bowling 
Green. His mind thoroughly imbued with English 
customs, he began the erection of the Stirling Manor 
on his Somerset estate in New Jersey. This tract of 
about seven hundred acres was inherited from his father, 
James Alexander, the surveyor-general of New Jersey. 
A large portion of it was of great beauty and fertility. 
The most skilled gardeners in America were hired to 
design and lay out the immense park, containing an 
enclosure for deer, a rose-garden, an Italian vineyard, 
and other accessories of a nobleman's seat in the mother- 
country. Mrs. Eliza Susan Morton Quincy, wife of the 
celebrated Josiah Quincy of Boston, who in her youth 
had a home near the Stirling Manor, has left us a descrip- 
tion of it as she knew it then. She says : 

"The seat of Lord Stirling, called by the country-people < The 
Buildings,' was two miles distant. Designed to imitate the residence of 
an English nobleman, it was unfinished when the war began. The 



* William Alexander was allowed his title in America by courtesy. 
In Timothy Trueman's Almanac for the year 1776, printed by Isaac 
Collins, of Burlington, his name is given among the members of his 
majesty's council of New Jersey as <*The Honorable Lord Stirling." 
General Washington in his correspondence invariably addressed him as 
"my lord." 

232 



THE STIRLING MANOR 



stables, coach-houses, and other offices, ornamented with cupolas and 
gilded vanes, were built behind a large paved court behind the mansion. 
The front with piazzas opened on a fine lawn descending to a consider- 
able stream called the Black River. A large hall extended through the 
centre of the house. On one side was a drawing-room with painted 
walls and stuccoed ceiling. Being taken there as a child, my imagina- 
tion was struck with a style and splendor so different from all around." 

Although Mrs. Quincy wrote that the Manor was un- 
finished at the time of the Revolution, the family had 
spent many summers there previous to 1776. Elegant 
ladies and cavaliers riding in the Stirling coach em- 
blazoned with coronets and panelled medallions were 
familiar sights to the farmers of the neighborhood. So 
great was Lord Stirling's generosity to the poor on the 
outskirts of his estate that they bobbed and courtesied 
to him whenever he passed in his chariot. His lordship 
accepted all their kowtowing and obeisance with the 
complacency of a man of his title. Among the Schuyler 
traditions there is a story told that Mrs. Cochrane, the 
sister of General Philip Schuyler, in a spirit of fun, when 
courtesying to Lord Stirling, once touched her high 
head-dress to the ground, whereupon his lordship was 
vastly pleased. The company present were very much 
amused at his display of vanity, and for a time society 
called the low sweeping bow " the curtsy Stirling." 
Another anecdote is told of Lord Stirling's feehng of 
importance. On the occasion of the execution of a 
British spy. Lord Stirling was standing near the gallows. 
The soldier who was to hang the poor wretch gave him 
a few moments to commune with his Maker and seek 
peace for his soul. The fellow fell on his knees, and in 

233 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

a beseeching voice cried, " Lord, Lord, have mercy on 
me !" Lord Stirling, imagining the supplication was 
addressed to him, turned to the man, and said, in a loud 
voice, " None, you rascal, none !" 

In those few years before the war many people were 
entertained at the partly-furnished country-seat. The 
Rutherfords, the Watts family, the Livingstons of New 
York and New Jersey, and the Jays, all connected with 
them by marriage. The Cluxtells and Steptoes of the 
South were among the great people constantly journey- 
ing there. The fairest American beauties and hand- 
somest beaux fluttered before the golden mirrors in the 
stuccoed drawing-room during June and July. Wits 
were there, too, — butterfly wits and waspish ones ; and 
when the Revolution was on, and General Stirling had 
taken a place among the most brilliant of our com- 
manders, the latter class did not forget him. His regal 
hospitality served him an ill turn then, and by reason of 
it he was rendered a conspicuous target for every spiteful 
and satirical lampooner. The acrimonious Jones wrote 
very disparagingly of him, and Jonathan Odell pubhshed 
a dastardly attack on his character, stinging, no doubt, 
at the time, but only amusing to-day : 

** What matters what of Stirling may become ? 
The quintessence of whiskey, soul of rum ! 
Fractious at nine, quite gay at twelve o'clock. 
From thence to bedtime stupid as a block," 

Brighter and more beautiful than any jewel in the 
Stirling coronet were Mary and Kitty Alexander, the 
two daughters of Lord Stirling. Charming and quaint 

234 



THE STIRLING MANOR 



they look at us to-day out of an old miniature done by 
some stray limner in their girlhood. The Lady Stirling, 
their mother, was a Livingston, a sister of Governor 
Livingston of New Jersey, who presented such a poor 
appearance in his youth that he was dubbed in New 
York society " The Broomstick." She was not a 
beauty, and whatever share of personal attractiveness 
Ladies Mary and Kitty possessed was most likely in- 
herited from their father. Lord Stirling was of fine 
personal appearance, and closely resembled the im- 
mortal Washington in face and figure. The Countess 
Stirling has been given one of the back pages in history, 
owing to the greater brilliancy of the lives of her hus- 
band and daughters, especially that of Kitty. She was 
"by nature mild, serene," and most likely a good portion 
of her time was spent governing and caring for the 
extensive household with which her husband always 
surrounded her. There is an unrecorded tradition that 
she was very fond of pets, and her dogs, cats, birds, 
and monkeys were the terror of her acquaintances. 
Their pranks must have delighted her very vivacious 
second daughter and those merry cousins, the girls of 
Governor Livingston, who " under manners soft and 
engaging" hid a great capacity for fun and frolic. 

At the first sign of the severance of the relations 
between the colonies and the home government Lord 
Stirling ardently embraced the cause of liberty, and 
practically laid his immense fortune, estimated at one 
hundred thousand pounds, on the altar of his country's 
welfare. He became a personal friend of General 
Washington. That calm judge of mankind placed the 

235 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

utmost confidence in his ability and integrity. During 
the early years of the war, while he was on Long Island, 
to the front at the battle of Trenton, proving the hero at 
bloody Brandy wine and bloody Monmouth, and captur- 
ing honor after honor by his brave conduct, his manor 
house up among the hills of Basking Ridge was not 
deserted, and was still a centre of sociability. 

After Washington vacated the Wallace House for the 
Ford Mansion at Morristown, in 1779, General Greene 
removed his pretty wife and staff from the Van der Vere 
house to Basking Ridge, and established his head-quarters 
at the Stirling Manor. With such agreeable hostesses 
we can imagine that the merry, dancing Mrs. Greene was 
in her element. We learn of her husband sending to 
Philadelphia "for a pasteboard for a bonnet" for her, 
which gives us a hint that her wardrobe was being 
replenished for this elegant household, whose manage- 
ment up to the time of Lady Kitty's wedding was con- 
ducted with some of its old-time state. 

Of that fair belle's marriage to Colonel William Duer 
of New York much has been written, as it is an inter- 
esting subject to most historians. The rich and hand- 
some Colonel Duer was descended from the noble family 
of De Vere. His father, a planter in the West Indies, 
had left him a large fortune in early manhood. At the 
time of his marriage he was considered the finest prize 
in the matrimonial market of the colonies. Like the 
Skinner family of Perth Amboy, there is a story told 
that the Duers were a branch of a royal family, and 
such a descent, added to great wealth, gave brilliant 
lustre to Colonel Duer's popularity. He was, no doubt, 



THE STIRLING MANOR 



much sought after by designing mammas and eh'gible 
daughters. But he remained indifferent to all the charms 
displayed before him until the winsome Lady Kitty cap- 
tured his heart, while visiting her sister, then Lady Mary 
Watts, in New York. She did more than all the rest, 
for she ran off with it to the Jerseys. 

Out under tall old trees, heavy with July foliage, their 
wedding took place, in the year 1779. Many of the 
guests, as did the hundreds of pieces of paduasoy, satin, 
laces, etc., which comprised the bride's trousseau, had to 
find their way past sentinels and army lines to be 
present. Governor Livingston had occasion to issue 
many passes, — acts which he generally did with very 
poor grace. All of the neighboring gentry appeared on 
the scene. The Southards, Kennedys, Hatfields, Lotts, 
and Mortons. The presents to the bride were very fine 
for the period. The Duchess of Gordon, always the 
ardent friend of Lord Stirling, the Earl of Shelburne, 
and several other members of the British nobility re- 
membered his favorite daughter. It is a sad story that 
many years afi:er the bright wedding-day Lady Kitty 
Duer, then a decrepit old woman keeping a boarding- 
house in New York City, was forced by poverty to part 
with the souvenirs of the happiest day of her life. 

From family tradition we learn that the bride was 
gowned in white, and made a beautiful picture as she 
stood by the commanding figure of General Wash- 
ington, under a cypress-tree, awaiting the coming of 
the bridegroom. After the knot was tied, the ladies, 
escorted by the brilliantly uniformed officers, — army 
affairs were then in a better condition than earlier in 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

the war, — trained their gay petticoats over the lawn to 
the manor, where one of those bounteous old-time colla- 
tions was served. Later, when the young people were 
deciding to play games, — " Langteraloo," " Kiss the 
Bride," " Put," and all the forgotten merrymakings in- 
dulged in at weddings, — a clamor arose outside the house. 
The guests, rushing to the windows, found the house 
surrounded by soldiers from a nearby camp, all shouting 
with lusty voices for a view of the bride. Then it is we 
obtain the prettiest picture of any scene in Lady Kitty's 
career, as she steps out again upon the grass in her white 
satin slippers and all her wedding finery to receive the 
congratulations of her father's fellow-campaigners. They 
gave them to her individually and then filed away with 
great satisfaction. 

The fete for Lady Kitty's marriage was the last enter- 
tainment ever given in the manor house by Lord Stir- 
ling. The private affairs which he had neglected for his 
sword gradually grew from bad to worse, and upon his 
death, at the close of the war in 1784, he left his family 
only an honored name. Lady Kitty Duer, through her 
wealthy marriage, continued to live in New York in all 
the luxury to which she had been accustomed at her 
father's Jersey home. Manasseh Cutler, in his journal 
of 1784, mentions having dined with the Duers. He 
found them living in the most sumptuous style, served 
by liveried footmen, with fourteen kinds of wines on the 
table and all the elegancies of the time. Their names are 
among the most frequent on the famous dinner-list of 
Mrs. John Jay, the social register of old New York. It 
is a strange and lamentable fact that very few of the 

238 



THE STIRLING MANOR 



ancestors of the members of our present New York 
society appear on that list, and it is sadder still that only 
the names of a small number of the descendants of that 
historic society of yesterday appear in the social columns 
and social registers of to-day. 

The Stirling Manor passed out of the possession of the 
family immediately after the war, and for some time 
it was a drug on the real estate market of the young 
republic. 

It is to be hoped that Lady Kitty did not visit it 
in after years, as its glories soon departed. Before the 
advent of the next century it was a scene of ruin. The 
drawing-room, with its stuccoed ceiling and decorations 
of goddesses and cupids, where Lord Stirling and his 
daughters sang hymns to the accompaniment of a little 
London spinet, still in existence, was a habitation for pigs. 
The tiled courtyard, where many a lordly coach had 
rumbled, was broken up, and the Stirling gilt coach, 
itself a reminder of Sir Charles Grandison's day, was a 
roosting-place for fowl. The entire estate became a 
dreary picture of neglect and ruin. 

An evil star seemed to shine on the family fortunes. 
Colonel Duer lost his immense estate in unwise specu- 
lations. Poor Lady Kitty survived him many years. 
In the dark close of her life the remembrances of her 
former happiness supported her, and she never ceased 
talking of her past. The Misses Trumbull, daughters 
of General Jonathan Trumbull, of Connecticut, in their 
unpublished letters, written during a visit to New York, 
have described her along with several others. Those 
who had never seen the winsome Lady Kitty of Revo- 

239 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

lutionary days no doubt thought the withered, snufF- 
taking old woman " queer" and " slatternly." She had 
outlived her period, and many of those who loved her 
best were sleeping. But why dwell on the gloomy pic- 
ture? For her the grand manor house among the quiet 
hills of Basking Ridge still existed, and she dwelt in the 
streets of memory, where she walked always fair and 
beautiful. 



240 



THE WALLACE HOUSE 

SOMERVILLE 

WHERE THE "FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY" AND 
THE "CIRCLE OF BRILLIANTS" CELEBRATED THE 
FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE FRENCH ALLIANCE 




NLY a few rods north of the point 
where the road from Somerville 
to Raritan crosses the tracks of 
the Central Railroad is a large 
and peaceful-looking frame dwell- 
ing. It was erected in the spring 
of 1778, by WiUiam Wallace, a 
gentleman of fortune, and was 
in its day considered almost palatial for that section of the 
country. In the following memorable winter and spring 
it was selected by General Washington as a head-quarters 
for himself and family. Undoubtedly it was fortunate 
for his country that Washington came there that winter 
of 1778, and did not heed the urgent advice of friends 
to give up active service in the Jerseys for the comforts 
of Philadelphia. A brilliant move in the chess game of 
the Revolution would most likely have been spoiled had 
he chosen otherwise. 

In an unpublished letter, written by General Greene 
to Major More Furman, dated Bound Brook, De- 
cember 2, 1778, we obtain a glimpse of the inner 
16 241 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

workings of the army and the great chief's coming. 
He says : 

" I am sorry to find our prospect of forage is very indiiFerent ; how- 
ever, we must do the best we can. A supply must be had by one 
means or other. If we are obliged to draw forage at a greater distance 
we must, and use the more industry. I believe we shall put directly in 
back of Bound Brook, below the mountain. I am only waiting for His 
Excellency's approbation, who is expected at this place to-morrow," 

His excellency arrived and did approve, and shortly 
afterwards his " lady" joined him at the Wallace House. 
She, too, must have been pleased with the things more in 
her own sphere, — the comfort of the house then nearing 
completion, its large rooms and pleasant furnishings. 
Later we read of the general obtaining from New Bruns- 
wick a table-service of queensware, that frail and aristo- 
cratic product of Wedgewood's skill, and six silver can- 
dlesticks. General Greene's foraging expedition grew 
more and more successful to require such luxuries for 
the table appointments. 

The old set of Wedgewood, found through the help 
of Lady Stirling, would tell us many interesting tales if 
it were in existence and could speak. We would hear 
of General and Mrs. Knox and their friendly squabbles, 
— for both were very fleshy, and tradition says Mrs. 
Knox always wanted to be thought smaller than her 
jolly husband ; of the then " brave" Benedict Arnold, 
who ate from them, dreaming of the beautiful face of 
his fiancee. Miss Shippen, at her father's great house 
in Philadelphia ; of gray-eyed Mrs. Greene, who must 
have often neglected her viands, served on them, in her 

242 



THE WALLACE HOUSE 



efforts to rival young Alexander Hamilton at brilliant 
repartee, and many others in a list too long to 
enumerate. 

Social intercourse abounded in the military community 
scattered over the Raritan Valley that winter. The Van 
der Veer Mansion, at Pluckamin, surrounded by " the 
whole park of artillery," the head-quarters of General 
Knox ; the Van Veghten House, near what is now Fin- 
derne,the head-quarters of General Greene; and the Staats 
House, at Bound Brook, the head-quarters of Baron Steu- 
ben, all opened their portals to the flower of the army 
which met so often at the Wallace House. Many were 
the impromptu dances after Mrs. Washington's stately 
dinners. What a delight the winding Wallace stair- 
case, overlooking the wide hall, was to flirting couples I 
We can imagine the cherubic Miss Ricketts, a friend 
of General Livingston's daughter, ogling over its thin 
balustrade in true Juliet fashion at brave Captain Lilly, 
who was Mrs. Knox's pet Beau Brummel, and that 
" lovely little hussy," Miss Sallie Winslow, of Boston, 
one of the young ladies she had in charge, frolicking 
about the rooms in a wild manner, disturbing the placid 
Mrs. Washington and many of the company. Perhaps 
the most interesting and notable social event occur- 
ring during the time Washington occupied the Wallace 
House as his head-quarters was the celebration in honor 
of the anniversary of the French alliance. It was given 
at Pluckamin, by the officers of the army, under direc- 
tion of General Knox. That pompous and always seem- 
ingly satisfied gentleman wrote to his brother, ten days 
after it was over : 

243 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

<' We had at the Park on the eighteenth a most genteel entertain- 
ment, given by self and officers. Everybody allows it to be the first of 
the kind ever exhibited in this State at least. We had about seventy 
ladies, all of the first, too, in the State. We danced all night ; between 
three and four hundred gentlemen ; an elegant room. The illuminating 
fireworks, etc., were more than pretty." 

The fete should really have occurred on the sixth of 
the month, but was delayed until the eighteenth by 
Washington's absence in Philadelphia. It was attended 
by all the army officers in that part of the country, the 
Jersey gentry, and many prominent persons from other 
States, who dared the dangers of travelling in that period. 
A large temple or pavilion was erected, supported by thir- 
teen adorned arches, to represent the thirteen States. In 
front of it in the evening, and before the dancing com- 
menced. Colonel Stevens showed his original talent for 
entertaining by giving exhibitions of fireworks. Gen- 
eral Washington arrived at the pleasure-ground early 
in the afternoon. He was soon followed by the ladies 
of the Wallace House, a body comprising some of 
the finest of that " circle of brilliants," the least of which, 
according to an old-time society reporter from the Penn- 
sylvania Packet^ was more valuable than the stone the 
king of Portugal secured for his Brazilian possessions. 

First came Mrs. Washington, in a coach drawn by 
four horses, accompanied by the fabulously rich Henry 
Laurens, of South Carolina, the former president of 
Congress. Then several coaches bearing bevies of lovli- 
ness in the persons of the governor's daughters, several 
young ladies from Virginia visiting Mrs. Washington, 
the wives of prominent officers, and presumably Lady 

244 



THE WALLACE HOUSE 



Stirling, with her charming daughter Kitty, the latter 
in delightful anticipation of the coming meeting with 
her handsome and distinguished lover, William Duer, 
ex-member of Congress from New York. After all the 
guests had arrived, the celebration was inaugurated by 
the discharge of thirteen cannon. Then followed a 
sumptuous dinner, after which fireworks were displayed, 
and the company repaired to the military academy, 
where, to the music of a large number of fiddlers, they 
danced till dawnlight. General Washington opened the 
ball with Mrs. Knox, and a very imposing couple they 
must have made. The same reporter, who compared 
the lovely ladies of the Washington circle to " a circle 
of brilliants," gives us a glimpse of how the belles and 
gallants acted in the ball-room in one of those very real 
descriptions which sometimes flash forth upon the anti- 
quary from dry columns of old newspapers and equally 
dry chronicles in old letters. He says : 

"As it is too late in the day for me to follow the windings of a fiddle, 
I contented myself with the conversation of some one or other of the 
ladies during the interval of dancing. I was particularly amused with 

the lively sallies of a Miss . Asking her if the roaring of the 

British lion, in his late speech, did not interrupt the spirit of the dance, 
* Not at all,' said she ; * it rather enlivens, for I have heard that such 
animals always increase their howlings when most frightened. And do 
you not think, you who should know more than young girls, that he was 
real cause of apprehension from the large armaments and honorable pur- 
pose of the Spaniards ?' ' So,' said I, ' you suppose that the King of 
Spain acts in politics as the ladies do in affairs of love, smile in a man's 
face, while they are spreading out the net which is to entangle him for 
life.' *At what season,' replied the fair, with a glance of ineffable arch- 
ness, * do men lose the power of paying such compliments ?* 

245 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

<' I do not recollect that I have ever been more pleased on any occa- 
sion, or in so large a company. There could not have been less than 
sixty ladies. Their charms were of that kind which give a proper deter- 
mination to the spirits and permanency to the affections. More than 
once I imagined myself in a circle of Samnites, where beauty and fidelity 
were made subservient to the interest of the State and reserved for such 
citizens as had distinguished themselves in battle. Is it that the women 
of Jersey, by holding the space between two large cities, have continued 
exempt from the corruption of either, and preserved a purity of manners 
superior to both ? Or have I paid too great attention to their charms 
and too little to those imperfections which observers tell us are the natural 
growth of every soil ?" 

If a gentleman of Pennsylvania could thus eulogize 
the fair women of Jersey, what must their own statesmen 
have thought of them ? It is safe to say that many a 
heart was lost that gala night to those " charms which 
give a proper determination to the spirits." Many arms 
were linked closer after the candles burned low and 
the ball was over and the guests came out in the 
cool night air, sweet with the odor of spring-touched 
woods. 

We must leave them there with their stately good- 
bys, and perhaps sly kisses behind fur-tippets for those 
youthful ones who sought the protecting shadows of 
the columns of the thirteen States, and follow the Father 
of his Country as he and his aids tuck some of the 
sleepy jewels into their coaches. Now the coachmen 
crack their whips, the horses start, and over the Somer- 
set highway they fly with only the fading stars to light 
them to the Wallace House. It is still standing at the 
turn of the road as they found it then. The quaint in- 
terior has been restored by the patriotic men and women 

246 



THE WALLACE HOUSE 



of New Jersey, and that company of the long ago would 
know it if they came trooping back to-day. In the 
hall which echoed to the tread of so many heroes the 
presence of the immortal Washington still lingers, and 
on the old stairway one pauses to hear the laughter of 
the " cherubic Ricketts." 



247 



THE VAN VEGHTEN 
HOUSE 



FINDERNE 



THE SCENE OF GENERAL WASHING- 
TON'S "PRETTY LITTLE FRISK" 




BOUT three miles distant from 
the Wallace House is a vener- 
able old Dutch dwelling, repos- 
ing above the placid little Rari- 
tan. It was erected half a century 
before the Revolution by a mem- 
ber of the Van Veghten family, 
and it is truly an abode of merry 
memories, as it was the head-quarters of General Greene 
and his wife — the dancing Greenes — during the army's 
stay in Central Jersey. 

The Van Veghten family were among the first Dutch 
pioneers in the Raritan Valley, and the name is prominent 
in Somerset history. At the time of the Greene occu- 
pancy of the Van Veghten House aged Derrick Van 
Veghten was the host, and there are traditions that he was 
the willing slave of the young wife, then in her early twen- 
ties. Mrs. Greene will always be remembered as one of 
the brightest and sprightliest figures in Revolutionary his- 
tory. Very fascinating, indeed, she was to have made the 



THE VAN VEGHTEN HOUSE 



generally grave and austere Washington forget his dig- 
nity, which she did on one occasion. We have her 
husband's own words, in a letter to Colonel Wadsworth, 
that there was a little dance at the Van Veghten House 
on March 19, 1779, when "His Excellency danced 
with Mrs. Greene for three hours without sitting down," 
and ending his communication with the giddily sound- 
ing sentence, " Upon the whole we had a pretty little 

frisk." 

General Greene, although of Quaker origin, was excep- 
tionally fond of " the Devil's exercise," as some of the 
most stern of the Quakers of Southern Jersey used to 
refer to dancing, and many anecdotes have come down 
to us of his fondness for the pastime. We read of him 
first as a handsome, fun-loving youth, going to balls 
and parties by stealth, and his stern father on some 
evenings parading his hallway with a horsewhip to greet 
him on his return home. Then there are those happy 
dances at Block Island, the home of Mrs. Greene, who 
was then Miss Littlefield, the governor's ward, and so 
on all through his life, until his sad death at Mulberry 
Grove, the seat Congress voted him in Georgia, he seems 
to have always gone hand in hand with the frolicsome 
muse. The night of his commander-in-chief's little frisk 
with Mrs. Greene he too was probably tripping his 
merriest with some fair partner. Perhaps she was little 
Cornelia Lott, over from Beaverwyck, near Morristown, 
with her harp and French books, as Mrs. Greene's guest, 
or one of the Andrew girls, staying with Mrs. Knox, 
" fetched by the beauing Captain Lilly from Elizabeth 
Town." But we shall have to content ourselves with 

249 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

only a guess at her identity, for no record has been pre- 
served of the company. One young man, at least, who 
must have been there was Harry Lee, the gay Virginian 
for whom Mrs. Greene conceived such an affection. 
Upon their first meeting they were attracted to each 
other, and the friendship lasted all through life, Lee 
dying at Mrs. Greene's Georgia home. He inherited 
his mother's beauty of features, who is said to have been 
Washington's " Lowland Beauty ;" and from his chief's 
evident partiality for him, he was sometimes dubbed 
" the pet of the army." 

Most likely some of the gay young officers helping 
our cause were also present. Baron Stevens's secretary, 
Pierre Duponceau, was the leader in all frolicking. He 
was then only nineteen, and had given many proofs of 
his Gallic assurance since his kissing a pretty girl on a 
Portsmouth street to celebrate his arrival in America. 
The French were very high in the country's esteem 
then, just after the celebration of the anniversary of the 
French alliance, and a French name was a passport to the 
best society. This feehng grew ; and when a son was 
born to Louis XVI., at the close of the Revolution, 
nearly every city was en fite^ and Philip Freneau put 
into the mouth of Prince William Henry, the lad who 
became King William IV., some amusing verses echo- 
ing the sentiment of the times, of which the following 
is a specimen : 

*' People are mad to thus adore the dauphin — 
Heaven grant the brat may soon be in his coffin. 
The honors here to this young Frenchman shown 
Of right should be King George's or my own." 
250 



THE VAN VEGHTEN HOUSE 

Besides this record of frivolity the old Van Veghten 
House boasts of many other stories. Its walls could 
tell of Mrs. Greene's long hours of serving for the 
soldiers, making her almost a rival of the knitting wife 
of Counsellor Condict at Morristown ; of her planning 
for better quarters for the privates with her host, one ot 
those staunch patriots who held nothing back from his 
country ; and of her enduring devotion to the sick and 
suffering soldiers. 

From all that is known of Mrs. Greene, she was a 
fitting helpmate for a man who after undergoing all the 
hardships of the Revolution still retained enough senti- 
ment in his nature to want to play " Puss in the Corner" 
with his wife for the sake of old times, when, after the 
war was over, visiting her former home at Block Island 
where he had wooed and won her. 

Though we know of her goodness and charity, we 
like best to picture her on the night she made the Father 
of his Country dance three hours. Perhaps it was partly 
in memory of this dance at the Van Veghten House, 
when in later years she appeared at one of Mrs. Wash- 
ington's state levees in Philadelphia as a widow, that the 
President personally brought her from and conducted her 
to her carriage, an honor much remarked upon at the 
time. 



251 



MORVEN 

PRINCETON 



WHERE THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF 
THE UNITED STATES AND NEARLY 
ALL OF HIS SUCCESSORS HAVE DINED 




N the main street of Princeton, 
formerly Prince Town, hidden 
somewhat by a Georgian garden 
and a row of catalpa-trees, is the 
well-preserved mansion of the 
Stockton family. Perhaps the 
greatest claim this house of many 
stories has on history is the fact 
that it was the shelter of Richard Stockton IV., known 
as " the Signer," and his charming, poetical wife, Anice 
Boudinot, the friend of Washington and the sister of 
the Hon. Elias Boudinot, of Elizabethtown and Phila- 
delphia. Generations upon generations of college boys 
nurtured in Princeton's classic shades have learned to 
love the time-worn, venerable building, and almost every 
student of the university to-day knows its history. 

Sweet " Emilia" and gallant " Lucius" — as the Stock- 
tons signed themselves in the romantic fashion of the 
times in their faded but love-breathing epistles — lived a 
married life that was the prettiest of pastorals, as 
Marian Harland expresses it; and looked at to-day 

252 



MORVEN 



through the long vista of years, they appear like two 
brightly colored and charming figures on a piece of old 
tapestry. !Mrs. Stockton, being a poetess, was perhaps the 
most romantic of the pair, and her effusions still in 
existence teem with eighteenth-century sentimentality. 
One of her first recorded acts on her arrival at her hus- 
band's estate as a bride was the changing of the man- 
sion's name from Constitution Hill to Morven, after one 
of the Poet Ossian's heroes. When at John Coven- 
hoven's house, near Freehold, at the beginning of the 
war, she is said to have given voice to the remark, " that 
she would not weep though her whole library was de- 
stroyed, if her dear Young's 'Night Thoughts' was 
saved intact." An amusing bit of Freehold gossip in 
connection with that visit is the tale that John Coven- 
hoven's wife was not overpleased with her fair visitor, 
whose airs and graces exhibited before her John acted 
somewhat like a red flag waved before one of the most 
unruly of animals. 

Princeton in the year 1776 was a very different place 
from the sequestered little hamlet to which Mr. President 
Burr had taken his seventy students from Newark to es- 
tablish a new home for the college, where they would 
be safely away from " promiscuous converse with the 
world, the theatre of folly and dissipation." With its 
churches and fine residences and its wealthy inhabitants, 
including the Breezes, Stocktons, Randolphs, Bain- 
bridges, Alexanders, Greenes, and many others, it was in 
a flourishing condition. As it was midway between 
New York and Philadelphia on the post-road, it was a 
usual stopping-place for travellers. The old Princeton 

253 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

Tavern and Withington's Inn at Kingston were always 
favorite resorts for the college boys and loitering-places j 
during recesses. As a Princeton poet wrote : 

** Many a lazy, longing look is cast 

To watch the weary post-boy travelling through 
On horse's rump, his budget buckled fast ; 
With letters safe in leathern prison bent. 
And wet from press, full many a packet sent." 

At the sound of the horn, the signal of the near 
approach of a stage-coach, many a student smoothed 
his ruffles or fixed his cap and gown. Gallants were 
more gallant in those days, and maids more maidenly ; 
old gentlemen and ladies used to sigh, but it is safe to 
say that the demure Quaker misses and fair Jersey belles 
enjoyed their few minutes' respite at Princeton, with 
the views of admiring college students, as much as 
modern belles enjoy their visits there to-day. 

On the tidings of the approach of Cornwallis's army 
in 1776, the village of Princeton was thrown into a 
panic. Mrs. Stockton, at Morven, hastily buried her 
silver in her garden, hid in a tree-trunk important 
papers taken from Whig Hall, and started with her 
children and slaves for Freehold. She, like many 
another sad resident, had to leave her home and treasure 
almost entirely at the mercy of the British. Over at 
Nassau Hall, which came so near being Belcher Hall,* 

* The trustees of the College of New Jersey wanted to name the 
college building at Princeton Belcher Hall, in honor of Governor Belcher. 
But this good servant of his king declined the honor, asking that it be 
named Nassau Hall, to the immortal memory of the glorious King 
William III., who was a branch of the illustrious house of Nassau. 

254 



MORVEN 



the inmates cleared their desks and packed trunks and 
boxes to be in readiness to leave a loved alma mater. 
Joseph Clark, a Princeton student of the time, has given 
us a picture of the scene there in his unpublished journal. 
He writes : 

*<On the 29th of November, 1776, New Jersey College, long the 
peaceful seat of science and haunt of the muses, was visited with the 
melancholy tidings of the approach of the enemy. This alarmed our 
fears and gave us reason to believe we must soon bid adieu to our peace- 
ful Departments and break up, in the midst of our delightful studies, nor 
were we long held in suspense our worthy President deeply afflicted at 
this so solemn scene entered the Hall where the students were collected 
and in a very affecting manner informed us of the improbability of con- 
tinuing there longer in peace, & after giving us several suitable instructions 
& much good advice very afFectingly bade us farewel. 

" SoUemnitfj & Distress appeared almost in every countenance, several 
students that had come 5 & 600 miles & just got letters in college were 
now obliged under every disadvantage to retire with their effects, or leave 
them behind, which several through the impossibility of getting a cartage 
at so confused a time were obliged to do, & lose them all as all hopes of 
continuing longer in peace at Nassau were now taken away I began to 
look out for some place where I might pursue my studies & as Mr. J. 
Johnson had spoke to me to teach his son I accordingly went there & 
agreed to stay with him till spring. 

" Next day I sent my Trunk & Desk to his house & settled all my 
business at college. On Sunday evening Gen. Washington retreated 
from Brunswick — I then went to Johnsons." 

During the time Mrs. Stockton was forced to stay at 
Freehold, Morven was occupied by Lord Cornwallis and 
his officers. They wantonly destroyed its furnishings, 
even to some of the woodwork. Little Anice Stockton 
had good cause to hate "that ignoble lord," as she 
called him. On his surrender she published an ode of 

255 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



congratulation to General Washington in The New 
Jersey Gazette. He considered it such a choice exhibi- 
tion of skill and taste that he wrote, " it afforded me a 
pleasure beyond power of utterance." Later, on the 
announcement of peace in 1783, she addressed another 
ode to him; and the letter* he sent her from Rocky 

* " Rocky Hill, Sept. 24th, 1783. 
" You apply to me, my dear madam, for absolution, as though I was 
your future confessor and as though you had committed a crime, great 
in itself, yet of the veneal class. You have reason good, for I find my- 
self disposed to be a very indulgent ghostly advisor on this occasion, and 
notwithstanding you are the most offending soul alive (that is if it is a 
crime to write elegant poetry) yet if you will come and dine with me 
on Thursday, and go through the proper course of penance which shall 
be proscribed, I will strive hard to assist you in expiating these poetical 
trespasses on this side of purgatory — nay, more, if it rests with me to 
direct your future lubrications, I shall certainly urge you to a repetition 
of the same conduct, on purpose to show what an admirable knack you 
have at confession and reformation ; and so without hesitation, I shall 
venture to recommend the muse not to be restrained by ill-grounded 
timidity, but to go on and prosper. You see, madam, when once the 
woman has tempted us, and we have tasted the forbidden fruit, there is 
no such thmg as checking our appetite, whatever the consequences may 
be. You will, I dare say, recognize our being the genuine descendants 
of those who are reputed to be our progenitors. Before I come to the 
more serious conclusion of my letter, I must beg leave to say a word or 
two about these fine things you have been telling in such harmonious and 
beautiful numbers. Fiction is to be sure the very life and soul of poetry 
— all poets and poetesses have been indulged in the free and indisputable 
use of it — time, out of mind, and to oblige you to make such an excel- 
lent poem on such a subject without any materials but those of simple 
reaUty would be as cruel as the edict of Pharaoh, which compelled the 
children of Israel to manufacture bricks without the necessary ingredi- 
ents. Thus are you sheltered under the authority of prescription, and I 

256 



MORVEN 



Hill, on its receipt, is considered the most charming and 
playful of any of his compositions. 

Richard Stockton died in the year 1781, but Mrs. 
Stockton still lived on at Morven with his " dear mem- 
ory." The beautiful letters he had penned her from 
London in a happy year were a great consolation then. 
In one in which he described the Queen's Birthnight 
Ball, he eulogized the loveliness of the Ladies Hamilton 
and Ancaster, and then told her that he " would rather 
ramble with her along the rivulets of Morven or Red 
Hill, and see the rural sports of the chaste little frogs." 
When she wearily gazed out of her windows she was no 
doubt cheered by the remembrance of what he had 
written of their garden. 

General Washington often dined at Morven ; and 
almost every President of the United States has shared 
its hospitality, giving it a unique position among the 
historic houses of America. Many of the Stockton 
family have been distinguished and added to its fame ; 
but its most interesting occupants will always be the 
romantic " Emilia" and gallant " Lucius." 

will not dare to charge you with an intentional breach of the rules of the 
decalogue in giving so bright a coloring to the services I have been ena- 
bled to render my country, though I am not conscious of deserving more 
at your hands than what the purest and most disinterested friendship has 
a right to claim ; actuated by which you will permit me to thank you in 
the most affectionate manner for the kind wishes you have so happily 
expressed for me and the partner of my domestic enjoyments. Be 
assured we can never forget our friend at Morven, and that I am, my 
dear madam, with every sentiment of friendship and esteem, your most 
obedient and obliged servant. 

** Mrs. Stockton. G. Washington." 

17 257 



ROCKY HILL HOUSE 

ROCKY HILL 

WHERE GENERAL WASHINGTON WROTE 
HIS FAREWELL ADDRESS TO THE ARMY 



lOUR and a half miles distant from 
Princeton, standing upon an ele- 
vated point near the banks of the 
Millstone, is the old Berrian resi- 
dence, better known throughout 
New Jersey as the Rocky Hill 
House. It was erected early in 
the eighteenth century by John 
Berrian, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of 
New Jersey, and was occupied by himself and family 
from the year 1 734 up to the time of his death in 1 76 1 . 
After that date his widow and children still continued 
to reside there, but on the convening of Congress at 
Princeton she gladly rented it to that body as a home 
for General Washington and his lady, then at Newburgh- 
on-the-Hudson. 

From General Washington's arrival at Rocky Hill, on 
August 24 of the memorable year of 1783, until his 
departure in the following November, the Rocky Hill 
House was truly an abode of happiness. The war was 
over, the colonies were free and independent States, and 
Washington and the other great men of the new country 

258 




ROCKY HILL HOUSE 



were drawing their first breaths of relief while awaiting 
the arrival of the Treaty of Peace and receiving the 
ambassadors of congratulation from Europe. The army- 
was virtually disbanded. Encamped about head-quar- 
ters, we are told, there was but the slim number of three 
hundred soldier boys from Alaine, all under twenty 
years of age. Jolly boys they were, with their songs 
and merrymaking. They were no doubt glad at the 
thought of a speedy return to their rock-bound coast and 
the pursuit of peaceful avocations, for on the weather- 
boards of the old house they have left us many crude 
sketches of little fishing-boats, showing that their minds 
were yearning for home. 

Over the rocky road which leads to Rocky Hill many 
famous people journeyed to visit the hero Washington. 
Francis Hopkinson, in his " Consolation of the Old 
Bachelor," has given us a quaint description of that 
road's perils. Writing of the hen-pecked husband, he 
makes him say : 

«* After a dish of tea and good bed at Princeton, in the morning we 
set off again in tolerable good humor, and proceeded happily as far as 
Rocky HUl. Here my wife's fears and terror returned with great force. 
I drove as careftilly as possible : but coming to a place where one of the 
wheels must unavoidably go over the point of a small rock, my wife, in a 
great fright, seized hold of one of the reins, which happening to be the wrong 
one, she pulled the horse so as to force the wheel higher up the rock than it 
would otherwise have gone, and overset the chair. We were all tumbled 
hickledy-pickledy into the road — Miss Jenny's face all bloody — the woods 
echo to her cries — my wife in a fainting fit — and I in great misery." 

It is to be hoped that none of Washington's friends 
endured any such hardships. There was one at least 

259 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

who would have been willing, and that was Thomas 
Paine, the man who rendered so many services to 
America, — services poorly remunerated. We see Wash- 
ington watching for him on the balcony of the Berrian 
house as he comes up the road, a picturesque figure on 
his horse " Button." His hair is rolled in the French 
fashion, his face is smooth and ruddy, and his eyes 
sparkle with the brilliant fire of genius. How kindly 
those eyes must have gazed on his benefactor as they 
often sat together, talking over Paine's private affairs or 
discussing the future of the new country. Those were 
truly red-letter days for poor Paine, as he basked in the 
smiles of the great Washington. Many of General Wash- 
ington's old Revolutionary comrades came to the house, 
too. Humphreys, Cobb, Lincoln, and a round of the best 
company constantly filled its little rooms. The dining-room, 
in the southeast corner of the first floor, often failed to 
accommodate the large number of guests the general and 
his lady were in the habit of asking to partake with them, 
and tables were then set on the lawn. David Howell 
of Rhode Island has given us a glimpse of one of these 
festive meals in a letter to Governor Greene. He says : 

"The President, with all the present members, chaplains, and great 
officers of Congress, had the honor of dining at the General's table last 
Friday. The tables were spread under a marquise or tent taken from 
the British. The repast was elegant, but the General's company- 
crowned the whole. As I had the good fortune to be seated facing the 
General, I had the pleasure of hearing all his conversation. The Presi- 
dent of Congress was seated on his right, and the Minister of France on 
his left. I observed with much pleasure that the General's front was 
uncommonly open and pleasant ; the contracted pensive phiz betokening 
deep thought and much care, which I noticed at Prospect Hill in 1755* 

260 



ROCKY HILL HOUSE 



is done away, and a pleasant smile and sparkling vivacity of wit and 
humor succeeds. On the President observing that in the present situa- 
tion of affairs he believed that Mr. Morris had his hands full, the Gen- 
eral replied at the same instant, * He wished he had his pockets foil, too.* 
On Mr. Peters observing that the man who made these cups (for we drank 
wine out of silver cups) was turned a Quaker preacher, the General replied 
that he wished he had turned a Quaker preacher before he made the cups." 

This was the Washington peace had made. The 
stern war-time commander was put aside, and the man 
who had been rarely known to smile through the long 
and arduous campaigns was almost like a child in his 
ebullient merriment. William Dunlap, the art historian, 
in the story of his own life, relates another anecdote of 
the happy Washington. A short distance from the 
Berrian house was the " rustic villa" of Mr. John Van 
Home, a gentleman farmer of some fortune, and quite 
prominent in that section of the country. General 
Washington was a frequent guest at his home and often 
stopped there for a chat with the Van Home ladies when 
riding too and fro from the Rocky Hill House and the 
town of Princeton. Young Dunlap when at Rocky 
Hill became a guest of the Van Homes, who were noted 
for their hospitality. Mr. Van Home at that time is said 
to have been about twice the width of Washington, and 
as he then weighed no less than two hundred and ten 
pounds, the good Dutch farmer was, in the language of 
Fielding, "a prodigious sight to behold." One day 
when returning from a fall-time walk with his guests he 
found his black boys in the vain pursuit of a pig needed 
for the larder. Angry at their ill success, he started in 
chase of the squealing porker himself, and after violent 

261 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

exertions succeeded in catching it. With the pig under 
his arm, he became engrossed in a lecture to his servants, 
and failed to note that the immortal Washington and 
some of his aids had entered the front yard. Looking 
up and seeing the smiling face of Washington above 
him, his chagrin is said to have been so comical that the 
general indulged in the loudest paroxysms of laughter 
of any of the convulsed onlookers. 

Much could be written about the onetime inmates of 
the old Rocky Hill House. On one of the walls hangs 
a copy of Joseph Wright's painting of General Wash- 
ington. Joseph Wright was an inmate of the head- 
quarters for some time, having brought a letter of intro- 
duction to Washington from Dr. Franklin, at whose 
advice he came from Paris. Other painters came to 
Rocky Hill to preserve the likeness of the " triumphant 
hero." Among them were James Peale and our own 
William Dunlap. The latter first painted the " mahog- 
any visaged" Mr. Van Home and his wife, and Wash- 
ington greatly admired the portraits. 

In the southeast room of the second story General 
Washington wrote his famous farewell address to the 
army. It was first spoken by the chief to his soldier 
boys from the quaint little second-story balcony. There 
were few dry eyes among the men who heard it, for it 
meant to them laurel leaves and rest and the long- 
wishcd-for kisses of dear ones in distant States. Of all 
that is known of General Washington at Rocky Hill — 
in his talks with Thomas Paine, surrounded by the Con- 
gressmen, chatting with the ladies of the first quality in 
the country, hearing the reading of the Treaty of Peace 

262 



ROCKY HILL HOUSE 



at Nassau Hall in Princeton, giving his farewell address 
to the army, and bidding General Howe pack his things 
for the journey to beloved Mount Vernon — there is 
nothing that can equal William Dunlap's striking and 
poetic description of him, written many years after the 
great chieftain was sleeping : 

** Before I left Princeton for Rocky Hill, I saw for the first time the 
man of whom all men spoke — whom all wished to see. It was acci- 
dental. It was a picture. No painter could have grouped a company of 
military horsemen better, or selected a background better suited for effect. 

" As I walked on the road leading from Princeton to Trenton, alone, 
for I ever loved solitary rambles, ascending a hill suddenly appeared a 
brilliant group of cavaliers, mounting and gaining the summit in my 
front. The clear autumnal sky behind them equally relieved the dark 
uniform, the buff facings, and glittering military appendages. 

" All were gallantly mounted. All were tall and graceful, but one 
towered above the rest, and I doubted not an instant that I saw the 
beloved hero. I lifted my hat as I saw that his eye was turned to me, 
and instantly every hat was raised and every eye fixed on me. 

" They passed on, and I turned and gazed as at a passing vision. I 
had seen him. All through my life used to the ' pride, pomp, and cir- 
cumstance of glorious war,' — to the gay and gallant Englishman, the 
tarlan'd Scot, and the embroidered German of every military grade : I 
still think that old blue and buff of Washington and his aids, their 
cocked hats worn sidelong, with the union cockade, the whole equipment 
as seen at that moment was the most martial of anything I ever saw." 

The Rocky Hill House is now owned by " The 
Washington Head-quarters Association of Rocky Hill," 
consisting of many of the most prominent men and 
women of New Jersey. Its rooms have been furnished 
by different Revolutionary societies, and it is a loving 
memorial of the happiest Washington of history — 

Washington the conqueror. 

263 



BLOOMSBURY COURT 

TRENTON 

WHERE THE FOUNDER OF TRENTON LIVED, 
AND LATER THE FAMOUS COX FAMILY 




ILOOMSBURY the beautiful, as 
Bloomsbury Court used to be 
called in the days of Colonel 
John Cox's ownership, is truly a 
house of many memories. In its 
colonial garden there still stands 
an aged ash-tree, planted by 
the wealthy and noted William 
Trent, the erector of the original Bloomsbury and the 
founder of Trenton ; and flanking the building itself are 
bushes of aged box, reminiscent of the days of the 
Georges. Under the shade of the ash-tree and the box- 
wood hundreds of roses bloomed in the long ago, fair 
white-hearts and gloires de Dijon, loved and tended by 
the Demoiselles Chevalier, the French aunts of Mrs. 
John Cox. 

One is prone to dream as he whispers the stately and 
euphonious name of Bloomsbury, for it belongs to the 
blossoming Trenton of yesterday, the Trenton of brick 
houses and brick-walled gardens an English visitor of 
the eighteenth century compared to a Devonshire town. 
Its leafy streets and lanes charmed many travellers. 

264 




„^ 



BLOOMSBURY COURT 



Two of the most noted were the gossipy Marquis de 
Chastellux and the Duke de la Rochefoucauld. The 
latter wrote in his diary " that it was a pleasant place, 
and numerous handsome villas enriched the landscape 
of the environs." 

Standing in the summer sunlight before the Blooms- 
bury of to-day, and shutting one's eyes to the growing 
city and her multitudinous voices, what genuine lover 
of history cannot obtain glimpses of the panorama of 
the past. Through the wide colonial doorway, a portion 
of Trent's Bloomsbury, where the great William Penn 
was often entertained, many figures pass : gentlemen of 
affairs, quiet, sombre-garbed Quakers, and gentlemen of 
the army. And who cannot see the ladies I Lovely 
visions in brocade and calico, flitting in and out like 
shadows. 

During the Revolution Bloomsbury Court was oc- 
cupied for a short period by Dr. William Bryant,* a 
practising physician of great repute, and afterwards by 
Colonel John Cox, assistant quartermaster to General 
Greene. The Coxes were greatly beloved by the dancing 
Greenes, and General Greene made the appointment of 
John Cox to serve under him a condition of his ac- 
ceptance of the position of quartermaster-general. 

At the time the war broke out John Cox and his 
family were living in a fine dwelling on Third Street, 
Philadelphia. He was the owner of an iron foundry at 

* Dr. William Bryant was a brother of Mary Bryant, who became 
the wife of William Peartree Smith, of Elizabethtown. His father was 
a sea-captain, and his tombstone in Perth Amboy records that he made 
fifty-five voyages between New York and London. 

26s 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

Batisto, New Jersey, from which some of his ample 
income was derived. During the war it supphed the 
army with a large amount of ordnance. On one occa- 
sion it nearly fell a prey to the British invaders, who 
passed by it on their way to Philadelphia. Owing to 
a skilful arrangement of lumber in covering the guns 
and cannon-balls the redcoats mistook it for a lumber- 
yard. 

The Batisto foundry played an important part in the 
lives of the Cox family ; and when the Quaker City was 
given over to Lord Howe and his aides, Mrs. Cox and 
her daughters fled to a farm-house in its vicinity for safety. 
In some old letters of the period, written by the Cox 
family to friends, we obtain a glimpse of the hardships 
they endured while there and learn to appreciate better 
the bravery of the carefully-nurtured patriot women of 
the Revolution. 

The lovely Mrs. Cox,* who has been described as " an 
angel of a woman" and a leader of the beau monde of 
Trenton and Philadelphia, was then forced to do up her 
hair with thorns in lieu of hair-pins, and her six daugh- 
ters went about in home-made linsey-woolsey. Miss 
Rachel Cox was seen at Valley Forge by Tory friends, 
and rallied by them on her " homespun appearance," but 
they later took pity on her forlorn condition, and helped 
her to secure some " London trades" for a more fashion- 
able wardrobe. 

Perhaps it was at Batisto that the Cox family learned 
the wise lesson of simplicity of manners and costuming. 

* Mrs. Cox before her marriage was Esther Bowes, the daughter of 
Sir Francis Bowes. 

266 



BLOOMSBURY COURT 



At a later period, when the fashionables of Trenton and 
Philadelphia were rioting in every extreme of foreign 
extravagance and luxury, the Cox girls in their muslins 
charmed the occupants of all the drawing-rooms they 
entered. Bloomsbury Court during the Cox regime 
was a republican Hotel de Rambouillent in miniature. 
All that was best in the surrounding country came there. 
Old Trenton society crowded in its salons for the pur- 
pose of conversation. Often there was some air of 
Handel and Mozart played or sung by an eighteenth- 
century celebrity, or the reading of the latest poem 
by a well-known litterateur. Mrs. Cox herself had the 
volatile essence of gaiety and wit that characterized 
the women of the famous French salons, and her six 
daughters, — Catherine, Rachel, Sarah, Mary, Esther, and 
Elizabeth, — who inherited the quality with the addi- 
tional fragrance of individuality, made a series of the 
most brilliant matches in the annals of old Philadel- 
phia society. 

General Washington and his lady enjoyed the hospi- 
tality of Bloomsbury Court, and the Marquis de Lafay- 
ette, Rochambeau, and other noted Frenchmen were 
entertained there. Many of the meals were served in 
the garden amid the roses of the Demoiselles Chevalier, 
and those stately ladies were always present conversing 
with their Gallic visitors in their native language. Sarah 
Cox, then a girl in her teens, used to relate in after years 
as Mrs. John Redman Coxe, the pleasure she took in 
seeing the family plate brought out for these occasions 
and the bustle and stir they brought to the family 
kitchen, " Those were Bloomsbury days," she used 

267 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

to sigh, and, according to Cox traditions, " Bloomsbury 
days" were best. 

One of the most welcome visitors at Bloomsbury 
Court, Bellville,* and other houses in the vicinity was a 
young Swedish aide-de-camp to Rochambeau, Count 
Jean de Ferson. This fascinating figure in our Revolu- 
tionary society has been described as a man of the pure 
blond type and beauty almost god-like. Marie Antoin- 
ette fell under the influence of his charm when he 
belonged to the revellers of the French court, and there 
is a story told that in disguise they often visited the 
streets of Paris together. It is said that his advent in 
America was due to his regard for her majesty's reputa- 
tion, as the preference she showed for his society was 
noted in the tittle-tattle of the court. His character as 
well as his personality was much admired, and the Cox 
ladies were no doubt as sensible of his attractions as the 
unfortunate queen of France. Of all the famous men 
who walked among the Chevalier roses in the Cox 
garden his life was the most brilliantly adventurous, for 
he it was who, disguised as a coachman, drove Louis 
XVI. and Marie Antoinette from Paris to Varennes on 
the occasion of their pitiful attempt to escape from the 
throne crumbling and falling about them. 

At the time Trenton was being talked over as the 
probable capital of the United States many distinguished 
visitors were entertained at Bloomsbury Court, and the 
list would be a very long one if enumerated. When 
General Washington passed through the city on his 

* Belville was the seat of Sir John Sinclair. It was occupied at dif- 
ferent periods of the Revolution by the Stirlings and the Rutherfords. 

268 



BLOOMSBURY COURT 



way to New York in 1789, Mrs. Cox was among the 
matrons who received him, and all her daughters took 
part in the festivities. The two youngest daughters — 
Sarah Cox, who afterwards became the wife of Dr. John 
Redman Coxe, and Elizabeth the wife of Horace Binney 
— were flower-girls by the famous arch. 

The Cox family disposed of Bloomsbury Court some 
time before the dawn of the nineteenth century. Among 
the families subsequently connected with its ownership 
and history are the Dickinsons, Redmans, Hewitts, 
Prices, Woods, and, last of all, the Stokes. Mr. James 
H. Redman erected the wooden addition while he 
occupied it as a residence, but the main house, built 
of bricks brought from England as ballast by the 
Trent and Penn merchantmen, is still in excellent con- 
dition. Its interior is very interesting. The old paper 
on the hall walls came from Alsace-Lorraine and is hand- 
painted with views of Eldorado scenery. On the walls 
of the rooms which listened to the voices of the gay 
Frenchmen of the court of Louis XVI., fate has placed 
paintings once owned by the Bonapartes. The famous 
old garden is still a riot of loveliness in the summer-time. 
To-day the old mansion is called Woodland, both fitting 
and appropriate. But when one pictures the old Demoi- 
selles Chevalier among their roses, his mind reverts to 
the more poetic name of Bloomsbury bestowed upon it 
by the founder of Trenton. 



269 



THE HERMITAGE 



TRENTON 



WHERE PRESIDENT JOHN ADAMS STOPPED DUR- 
ING THE CHOLERA SCARE IN PHILADELPHIA 




:NOTHER house in Trenton 
whose history in point of interest 
rivals that of Bloomsbury Court 
is the Hermitage, formerly the 
residence of Major-General Phi- 
lemon Dickinson, still standing 
on the River Road. Philemon 
Dickinson was a member of a 
distinguished family and one of the most dauntless 
soldiers of the Revolution. His father, Samuel Dickin- 
son, was a judge famous in Delaware's colonial history, 
and his brother, John Dickinson, became governor of 
Delaware and Pennsylvania. 

The Dickinson mansion was erected by the Ruther- 
ford family some years previous to the Revolution. Like 
a rush-light gleaming on his character is the interesting 
fact that General Dickinson purchased it from them in 
the July between the Declaration of Independence and 
the battle of Trenton, — showing a supreme confidence in 
the future of his country, for at that time there was 
almost no market for property, owing to the uncertainty 
of the government. 

270 



THE HERMITAGE 



General Dickinson was a man of great wealth for the 
period in which he lived. His father had left an estate 
of over ten thousand acres on his decease in 1760, 
and a large share of it fell to him. His wife, Mary 
Cadwalader, also brought him a considerable fortune, 
and as soon as the Hermitage came into their possession 
they commenced to improve it. We are told that it 
excelled most of the residences of Trenton in having a 
blue drawing-room with imported furniture, a great 
dining-room, a conservatory, and a whispering-room. 
The last quaintly-named room must have been a great 
delight to the young people of Trenton. Mrs. Dickin- 
son's younger sisters, Rebecca and Elizabeth Cadwalader, 
and later her daughter, Mary Dickinson, were no doubt 
among the most envied of all the girls of the gay State 
capital. 

Many famous people were entertained at the Hermit- 
age. John Adams, a personal friend of the general, 
often stopped there in the perilous year of 1777, before 
the close proximity of the British drove Congress from 
Philadelphia. Later as President, during the cholera 
scare in that city in 1 798, he spent with the Dickinson 
family much of the time passed in Trenton, although 
quartered with his secretary and domestics at the old 
Phoenix Hotel. This ancient building stood until some 
years after the Civil War at the corner of West Hanover 
and Warren Streets. 

Little Adams must have enjoyed his jaunts to 
Trenton and its environs in the memorable spring 
of 1777 to meet Jersey friends and seek relaxa- 
tion from state cares. In March of that year 

271 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



he wrote in disgust from Philadelphia to his faithful 
Abigail : 

** This city is a dull place in compared to what it was. More than 
one-half of the inhabitants have removed into the country, as it was their 
wisdom to do. The remainder are chiefly Quakers, as dull as beetles." 

Trent's Town was wide enough awake at that time, 
and there he no doubt found plenty of relief from his 
drab-clothed and drab-souled Quakers. From his diary 
we learn that he breakfasted and supped with the Jack- 
sons, Smiths, Spencers, and others. Now and then he 
stopped at the Sign of the Green Tree, the tavern that 
gained his attention when he first visited Trenton in 
1774, owing to the four immense walnut-trees shading 
it. This old-time hostelry, conducted by the Williams 
family, attracted many travellers, notably the famous 
Marquis de Chastellux in 1780. 

Although Adams enjoyed Trenton the town in 1777, 
it was a very different place from the brilliant city he 
found there twenty-one years later. The close of the 
eighteenth century was one of the notable periods in its 
history, especially its social history. Among the families 
then most prominent were the Howells, Brearleys, Fur- 
mans, Morrises, Clymers, Cadwaladers, Merediths, Coven- 
novens, Rutherfords, Dagworthys, Spencers, Bainbridges, 
Greens, Beattys, De Klyns, Wilcoxes, Erskines, and 
Reeds. In the fall of 1798, when the yellow-fever was 
most virulent in the capital near by, all the government's 
officials removed to Trenton with their families. The 
city soon became overcrowded, and it was almost im- 
possible to obtain any kind of lodging. President 

272 



THE HERMITAGE 



Adams arrived October lo, and was greeted on State 
Street with fireworks and cheers ; and an old chronicler 
informs us that later a round of elegant and fashionable 
entertainments was planned in his honor. 

October days of 1798 were bright ones for Trenton, 
and the rooms of the Hermitage were always taxed with 
large gatherings of the first company of the republic. 
Lucy Pintard, a member of the famous Pintard family 
of New York City and later of the Jerseys, spent that 
month and the preceding ones in Trenton. One of her 
letters written from London in the following year, and 
still preserved by her descendants, contains a pleasing 
reference to the fashionables of the former place. She 
writes : 

** The sprigs of the Peerage I have met with so far at Mrs. Rives do 
not equal in their fineness of attire our own ladies and gentlemen of New 
Jersey, to be found in the capital city. Ours have the innocence of a 
new formed society and government. Gaming is all the rage here and 
they keep it up at every house. . . . 'Tis said a woman of quality has 
got herself into serious trouble by her gaming table and is threatened 
with the pillory." 

One Is glad to learn that Trenton society was " in- 
nocent" of some of the corruptions of English high 
life, for its members aped their English and French 
cousins as far as possible in their manners of living. 
When the London world was enjoying the rage for 
" picnicing-parties" in the late nineties, Trenton as well 
as Philadelphia gentry began repairing to the rural shades 
along the Delaware for like diversions. The Fish House, 
about eight miles above Camden, became the scene of 
18 273 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

large gatherings, A portion of this old building, with 
modern additions, is in existence to-day. There the 
belles and beaux sipped the famous " Fish-House Punch," 
concocted of champagne, tea, sugar, Santa Cruz rum, 
and apple-whiskey ; and if we can believe the tales of 
yesterday, its sparkling nectar helped loosen the tongue 
of many a backward swain. The well-to-do gallants 
of Trenton copied Prince Florizel, the fashion-plate of 
Europe, in their clothes. Modified editions of his won- 
derful coats and breeches were always to be found at 
the tailors in Philadelphia three months after they had 
startled Brookes or Riggetts or the inmates of the 
drawing-room. Poor Florizel was well on his walk 
over the bridge of years in 1799, and the adjective " fat" 
applied to him by pert little Beau Brummel was no mis- 
nomer. He still was the arbitrator of styles though, 
and introduced new fancies in raiment with all the ardor 
of his early Carlton Palace days. 

English carriages became quite the rage in the city 
about this time, and the Hermitage stable possessed a 
beautiful and expensive example used by the second 
Mrs. Dickinson, pretty Rebecca Cadwalader, a sister of 
the general's first wife. 

Strange as it may seem, Trenton in those days was 
not a city for dances. The dance-loving members of 
the elect had to take the Philadelphia coaches for the 
Assemblies when they wished to enjoy the pleasure of 
dancing in a large company. Many South Jersey 
names are on the subscription lists of those noted affairs, 
and most likely the inhabitants of Trenton often at- 
tended them. 

274 



THE HERMITAGE 



The whispering-room of the Hermitage is one of the 
most famous rooms in the social history of New Jersey. 
There Madame Moreau, " the beautiful Parisian," dis- 
played her wonderful pearls and played on the harp for 
select audiences. In its dim recesses Louis Philippe, a 
future king, paid graceful compliments to the ladies of 
the Dickinson household. When Alexander Hamilton 
journeyed to Philadelphia on government business, with 
his fair daughter Angelica for a companion, they stopped 
in Trenton and visited General Dickinson. Perhaps that 
fair girl's tender heart, so soon to be stilled forever, beat 
faster in the whispering-room, for there was a handsome 
young Joseph Dickinson by her side, and no doubt he 
was an adept in the art of whispering the sweet nothings 
of that sentimental age. Many a tale could most likely 
be told of the old room as fascinating as the romantic 
Trenton Tavern elopement of Frances Rutherford * and 
Colonel Fortesque of the British army, but its eighteenth- 
century frequenters are all sleeping, — a number of its 
most devoted ones in the Friends' Burying-Ground, about 
their genial host of the long ago. 

A partial list of the celebrities entertained at the 
Hermitage was compiled some time ago by a member 
of the Dickinson family. It includes the names of 
Washington, Adams (John), Jefferson, Livingston, 
Franklin, Morris (Robert and Gouveneur), Clymer, 
Witherspoon, Rutledge, Pinckney, Middleton, Carroll, 

* Frances Rutherford's father, Robert Rutherford, was the proprietor 
of "The Legonier or Black Horse," a noted Trenton tavern. Her 
elopement with Colonel Fortesque occurred during the Revolutionary 
period, and created a great stir in Trenton. 

275 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



Lafayette, Steuben, Rochambeau, Greene, Putnam, Stir- 
ling, Wayne, Knox, Lincoln, and two kings, viz., Louis 
Philippe and Joseph Bonaparte. General Dickinson had 
two children, — Mary Dickinson, who became the wife of 
George Fox, Esq., of Champlast, and Samuel, who mar- 
ried a daughter of Samuel Meridith, first treasurer of the 
United States. 



276 



BOW HILL 



TRENTON 



WHERE THE BEAUTIFUL QUAKERESS 
ANNETTE SAVAGE MADE HER REJECTED 
OVERTURES TO TRENTON SOCIETY 




HREE-OUARTERS of a mile 
out of Trenton proper, on the 
Lalor Road, one comes to the 
famous De Klyn Lane, a good 
half-mile long, leading to Bow 
Hill. Mounting the little rise 
of land to the old white gateway 
guarding it, one seems to be sur- 
rounded by all the great factories of Trenton ; but once 
in the lane itself, they are forgotten. Straight ahead in 
the distance the old red-brick house stands like some 
fading eighteenth-century picture shut away in a forgot- 
ten world. In its early days an isolated situation led 
Joseph Bonaparte to select it as a retreat for his beautiful 
Annette Savage, and after a hundred years it is still seques- 
tered. The wanderer in the lane approaching it will 
never forget the picture, especially if the season in which 
he comes there is the spring. Hoary-headed pine-trees 
and acres of golden daffodils surround it. Robins and 
bluebirds twitter a welcome, and the murmuring Dela- 
ware in the distance and the wind among the pussy- 

277 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

willows sigh one. The daffodils bend and sway like 
Wordsworth's merry crowd, and beckon one nearer, 
and the sad face of the old house itself seems to say, 
" Come and rest awhile, and I will tell you the stories 
that lie buried in the hushed chambers of my heart." 

" Beau Hill" the wits of Trenton used to call it when 
Bonaparte took his uncrowned queen there in one of the 
first summers of the twenties, but Bow Hill was the 
rightful name given to it by its owner, Barnt De Klyn, 
shortly after its erection, a few years succeeding the Revo- 
lution. Barnt De Klyn, or D'Klyn, as the name used to 
be written, was a descendant of the Huguenot French 
nobility, and was born in the city of Boston. In his 
youth he enjoyed all the advantages of wealth and 
education, and on coming of age he married Mary Van 
Zant, a member of a prominent Knickerbocker family 
living in the vicinity of Pearl Street, New York City. 
During the Revolution he engaged in the cloth trade, 
and supplied large quantities of material to the army. 
So great was his success in this mercantile venture that 
in a few years he amassed an immense fortune, which 
enabled him to retire in a large measure from the busi- 
ness world. 

Long before there was any talk of making Trenton 
the capital of the United States Barnt De Klyn pur- 
chased a large tract of land along the Delaware, and 
during the long discussion in the eighties, when all eyes 
were turned to Trenton as the most probable seat of the 
federal government, he added hundreds of acres in the 
vicinity to his estate. When the crushing year of 1 790 
came with its fateful tidings that a site on the Potomac 

278 



BOW HILL 



was the selected spot, he found himself miles away from 
the real field for speculators. Although crushed for a 
time, he still possessed an ample fortune, and soon de- 
cided to improve his large estate and his recently con- 
structed mansion, then one of the finest dwellings in 
New Jersey. 

Tradition says that this gentleman of yesterday lived 
in all the splendor of a liege lord of the soil. Surely 
no English or French nobleman of the period was ever 
waited on more faithfully by his retinue of foot-boys, 
flunkeys, and cup-bearers than Barnt De Klyn was by his 
slaves. Haughty of spirit, but kind withal, he lived with 
his wife and only daughter, Kitty De Klyn, in a little 
monarchy of his own, close by the world of Trenton. 
Kitty De Klyn was her father's idol, and he lavished 
every luxury an ample purse and whimsical fancy could 
procure for her. Her character was a curious mixture 
of a hoyden and a saint, and those who still remember 
her as an aged grandame living in state in Trenton speak 
of her as something akin to the latter. Her lengthy 
will, with its many bequests, has been called the most 
beautiful document among those of the same character 
ever devised by a woman of New Jersey. A few years 
before the close of the eighteenth century the petted 
daughter was sent to an elegant boarding-school near the 
City Hall, New York City, to complete her education 
and to fit herself for a brilliant future as mistress of Bow 
Hill. Then about fourteen years old, she was already a 
favorite in Trenton society. She had been one of the 
little flower-maidens who had taken part in the memor- 
able welcome to General Washington when he passed 

279 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



through the city on his way to his inauguration as Presi- 
dent, and enjoyed great local fame for her dancing. Her 
love for this pastime seems never to have abated, for it 
is related of her that as an old lady of eighty-five years, 
on her last visit to Bow Hill, she alighted from the steps 
of her ancient carriage to trip the rollicking " Wild Irish- 
man" adown the wide hall with a troop of merry chil- 
dren. 

Kitty was truly a kittenish schoolgirl in more than 
name, for she soon grew tired of her boarding-school and 
ran off with a handsome young Irishman, whose fine eyes 
and melodious voice had made a deep impression on her 
susceptible heart. Her elopement was almost as roman- 
tic an affair as that of the famous Charlotte Temple. 
The young people had met first when the girls were out 
for a promenade with their teachers, and had fallen so in 
love with each other that after a few subsequent meetings 
at the Battery, or on Broadway, the maiden consented to 
leave her room by a ladder at night, climb a garden wall 
with her lover, and hurry off into the darkness to rouse 
some good parson to make them man and wife. 

How the rooms of Bow Hill echoed to the storm 
of a father's rage when Barnt De Klyn learned that 
the darling of his heart had forgotten her high name 
and the plans made for her career, and had married a 
penniless Irishman. For a year he never spoke of her, 
and would not open her letters ; but one day his heart 
melted, and Kitty and her handsome husband rode up 
the old lane to Bow Hill, and were received with open 
arms. Much more could be written of the fascinating 
Kitty, but we must on to the greatest romance in the 

280 



BOW HILL 



annals of the old house. The love of a king and a poor 
little descendant of the Quakers. 

Some time after the Princess Zenaide and her husband 
left our shores for Italy, Joseph Bonaparte, so the story 
goes, induced his friend Barnt De Klyn to rent Bow Hill 
to him for a summer or two as a retreat for the fair An- 
nette Savage. Many tales have been told of this Ameri- 
can wife of King Joseph. Her mother and herself are 
[ said to have conducted a small dry-goods shop in Phila- 
delphia at the time Bonaparte met them, and it is tradi- 
tional gossip that the brother of Napoleon I, fell in love 
with the dark-eyed maiden as she sold him suspenders 
over her little counter. For a time he lived with her 
in the city of Philadelphia, and later installed her in a 
villa some distance below the city proper. The blue- 
blooded aristocracy of the Quaker City looked on the 
armour with horror, and the little Quakeress was made 
to feel all the cruel stings which spring from virtuous 
indignation. The count, who was very fond of society, 
looked in vain for the familiar equipages of friends in his 
driveway. When he gave parties, half the invited guests 
were sure to send regrets. Finally, becoming enraged at 
what he termed " insults," he decided to go back to Jer- 
sey. Wishing to secure a mansion that was beautiful as 
well as sequestered, he persuaded his friend Barnt De 
Klyn to rent him Bow Hill, and he in return for the 
privilege gave him the use of another villa he owned in 
Trenton. Little is known of Annette Savage's life at 
Bow Hill to-day, although the house is still in the pos- 
session of a descendant of Barnt De Klyn, Miss Caroline 
Lalor. Her love for her ancient abode amounts almost 

281 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

to a worshipful veneration, but the subject of Bonaparte's 
stay there was always prohibited in family conversation 
by her father. A secret door in the wall of Annette 
Savage's room, through which Bonaparte used to enter, 
is still shown to interested visitors. On one of her win- 
dow-panes facing the Delaware is the sentence " God is 
love," scratched with a diamond, and it is a family tradi- 
tion that it was her work. 

Eighty years ago it was very lonely at Bow Hill, for 
it is shut away from the world to-day. Then there were 
no houses of any pretension between it and Trenton. 
Very often the poor little Annette must have longed for 
her humble sphere when she heard of the parties and 
galas a few miles distant where she was never invited. 
Trenton society followed the lead of Philadelphia, and 
very few, if any, of the ladies of the city called on her. 
Even Barnt De Klyn, Bonaparte's friend, afterwards re- 
gretted that he had allowed his house to be stigmatized 
by an affair of the heart entailing so much scandal. 
Stung at the ostracization, she made several pitiful at- 
tempts to enter the charmed circle, but the only atten- 
tions paid her were from the wives of the followers of 
the Bonaparte fortunes. One comfort she had besides 
Joseph's love for her, and that was her baby daughter 
Charlotte. This child grew to a noble womanhood, and 
in after years her sweetness and charm led Napoleon III. 
to legalize her mother's union with his relative and pre- 
sent their daughter to the French court as his cousin. 

A beautiful picture Annette Savage and her child must 
have made in the rustic walks then leading in all direc- 
tions from the house. Jacob, Bonaparte's tall and mus- 

282 



BOW HILL 



cular Hungarian body-guard, was their devoted attend- 
ant, and he is said to have been a striking figure in his 
gay uniform. The mother, with his help, was the one 
who planted the multi-great-grandparents of the present 
field of daffodils which climb up the banks of the Dela- 
ware almost to the very windows of the front rooms. 
The fragrance and beauty of flowers at that time often 
pierced the heart of the little woman, for she had lost 
her first-born child, a daughter, through the fall of a 
flower-pot, which had instantly killed it. 

The spring of the year 1822 is the time Bonaparte left 
Bow Hill. The seclusion no doubt palled upon him ; 
and after a visit to his great mansion at Bordentown he 
started on a long journey to the wilds of Central New 
York. Several years before in France, when a pursued 
fugitive, he had purchased an immense estate in Jefferson 
County from a member of the De Chaumont family, and 
thither he was bound. In the town of Diana, which he 
named and founded, he built an imposing villa, called 
the White House, and there Annette Savage presided as 
mistress until the Revolution of 1830 called him back 
to France. Many distinguished Frenchmen sought the 
hills of the poetically-named Diana in those years. 
Among them were Marshal Brouchy, Count Peter Fran- 
cis Beal, the Due de Vincence, and many others. The 
White House, only recently destroyed, was the scene of 
much lavish hospitality during Bonaparte's stays there, 
and it is said that in its rooms many deep-laid plans 
were made for the rescue of " The Little Emperor" lan- 
guishing at St. Helena, — but they were always frustrated 
by the malignant Fate then hovering over the Man of 

283 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

Destiny. After Joseph Bonaparte's return to Europe and 
his ex-queen at Lake Geneva, Annette Savage married 
Joseph de la Foille, a young Frenchman of good family 
then at Diana. Joseph Bonaparte must have been for- 
getful of her love, and could not have left her much at 
the last, for she is said to have gone back to her old vo- 
cation and supported her family in Watertown by keep- 
ing a small store. Perhaps the happiest days of her life 
were those at beautiful Bow Hill, for she endured much 
sorrow in her latter career. The child Charlotte, the 
daughter of a king, who revelled in the rustic shades 
along the Delaware, lived a life fully as romantic and as 
sorrowful as her mother's. She died a few years ago at 
Richfield Springs, and there are many people yet living 
who love to repeat the wonderful tale of her origin, 
stranger than fiction. 

Bow Hill to-day seems to remember Joseph Bona- 
parte and his little Quaker love. Elegant souvenirs of 
the Empire linger in the mouldy drawing-rooms. Even 
the aged striped curtains at some of the windows tell of 
the severe classicism of that period. Annette Savage is 
forgotten by the great world, but Bow Hill still whis- 
pers what is known of her story. So many generations 
have lived out their lives under its old roof it cannot 
remember much. Standing before it in the twilight, and 
saying good-bye, it looks like some aged grieving mother 
longing for the children who have left her. One almost 
hates to leave it alone with the gloomy night as he hur- 
ries down the De Klyn Lane out of which poor little 
Annette Savage rode so many years ago. 

284 



THE HOPKINSON 

MANSION 



BORDENTOWN 



WHERE FRANCIS HOPKINSON WROTE HIS 
FAMOUS DITTY "THE BATTLE OF THE KEGS" 




VERLOOKING the quiet Dela- 
ware, where the river bends on 
its course to Philadelphia, is the 
old city of Bordentown. Like 
most of the cities, towns, and 
hamlets of Southern Jersey, it 
seems to be resting under some 
strange magic spell which renders 
it impervious to progress and content to live on with 
only its memories of the past. Walking along Main 
Street and gazing at stately mansions partly hidden by 
quaint and ofttimes neglected gardens, the first house 
sure to attract the stranger's attention and hold his 
interest is a large yellow-brick building, the home of 
the Hopkinson family. It was erected in the latter 
half of the eighteenth century, and there the illustrious 
Francis Hopkinson, known in Pennsylvania and the 
Jerseys as " the versatile Mr. Hopkinson," spent many 
years of his life. 

Francis Hopkinson was the first student enrolled at 

28s 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

the College of Philadelphia, now the University of Penn- 
sylvania, from which he was graduated with honor before 
he took up the profession of law. Some time in the year 
1768 he visited England, spending his time at Hartle- 
bury Castle, the seat of his grand-uncle, and in London 
with Benjamin West and other artistic friends. While 
abroad he studied the arts of music and painting, 
and attained to a high degree of proficiency in both. 
Writing from Philadelphia, in 1776, John Adams ex- 
presses a hope that he shall see a portrait of " Miss Keys, 
a famous New Jersey beauty," which was " made by 
Mr. Hopkinson's own hand." A specimen of his work 
at a later period was mistaken for a painting by 
Copely, and when compared with a portrait by that 
great artist, was thought to equal it in tone and color- 
ing. After a poetical courtship in 1768, young 
Hopkinson married Ann Borden, a daughter of the 
wealthiest man of the town, and the three resided 
together in the dwelling now always spoken of as the 
Hopkinson Mansion. The musical son-in-law is said 
to have charmed the other two members of the house- 
hold with his performances on the spinet, and while he 
played for them the villagers, old and young, would 
congregate about the Mansion's windows to hear Hop- 
kinson " tuning." 

In the first years after his marriage Hopkinson devoted 
much of his time to his poetic muse ; and we can imagine 
him seated at one of the broad back windows of his 
home on early mornings listening to the sound of the 
huntsman's horn and the cries of the chase as he pens 
one of his silvery hunting-songs. At that time, almost 

286 



THE HOPKINSON MANSION 

half a century before the Bonapartes had Hnked their 
names so ineffably with Bordentown, it was known as 
quite a fashionable summering place for the old English 
society of Philadelphia. Among the families who fre- 
quented it were the McKeens, Shippens, Morrises, Chalk- 
leys, Chews, and Norrises, and no doubt many others in 
the summer took their goods and chattels to the " crooked 
billet wharf" in the Quaker City for Borden's " water- 
flyer." After the year 1774 Francis Hopkinson occupied 
his Bordentown mansion permanently, not journeying to 
Philadelphia, as had been his wont, for the winter season. 
Of the many satirical essays and poems he wrote there 
the production which gave him the greatest degree 
of fame was his " harmonious ditty" describing the 
" Battle of the Kegs." The infernal machines for this 
affair, planned to destroy the British shipping at Phila- 
delphia, were made at the Borden cooper-shop and towed 
down the Delaware by a plucky villager over night. 
The ships they were designed to destroy had been re- 
moved from their exposed positions in the river ; but 
the killing of four men by the explosion of one of 
the kegs terrorized the British invaders, who imagined 
an American force had come on them unawares. From 
the ludicrous consternation they occasioned, Hopkin- 
son secured the theme of his amusing poem. On the 
first appearance of the poem in print it caught the 
popular taste, and its jingle and easily-remembered 
metre made it one of the greatest poetical successes of 
the day. 

A year after the fiasco of the kegs, some British troops 
then in the vicinity of Bordentown decided to revenge 

287 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

themselves on the Bordens for their pronounced animosity 
to their king, Tradition says they were led to Joseph 
Borden's son's house by Polly Riche,* a beautiful Tory 
maiden who had been admired by Benedict Arnold before 
he married Miss Shippen. They immediately set fire to 
the building and its surrounding barns, waiting until they 
were sure its destruction would be complete. While 
Colonel Borden's mother-in-law sat in the middle of the 
street watching the cruel work, a British officer stepped 
up, and with apparent sympathy said, " Madam, I 
have a mother and can feel for you." " I thank you, 
sir," she replied; "but this is the happiest day of my life. 
I know now you have given up all hope of reconquer- 
ing my country, or you would not thus wantonly de- 
vastate it." 

The Hopkinson Mansion was also fired at the same 
time, but it escaped destruction owing to the curious 
fact that the officer in charge was a man of superior 
culture.f He is said to have become so engrossed in 
the mechanical and mathematical instruments it contained 

* Polly Riche was one of the belles of the famous British Meschianza 
given in Philadelphia. At the time the British came to Bordentown her 
Tory proclivities had estranged her from nearly all her friends in the 
tovrn, and she revenged herself by pointing out the homes of her enemies 
to the commander. 

-j- Captain James Ewald, one of the best known Hessian officers 
engaged in the war. While his men were extinguishing the fire-brands 
which had been applied to the roof of the Hopkinson Mansion he was 
writing the following lines in a volume he picked up in the library : 
*♦ This man is one of the greatest rebels ; nevertheless, if we dare to 
conclude from the library and mechanical and mathematical instruments, 
he must be a very learned man." 



THE HOPKINSON MANSION 

and its immense library that he commanded the fire to 
be extinguished, forgetting the rebel in his recognition of 
the erudite. 

After Francis Hopkinson's death, in 1791, his home 
came into the possession of his son Joseph, famous for 
having written " Hail Columbia." According to the 
story still repeated, Bordentown was its birthplace ; but 
there is sufficient proof extant to show that it was 
written at Joseph Hopkinson's Philadelphia residence 
at the instigation of Mr. Fox, an actor friend, who was 
a favorite on the boards of the Chestnut Street Theatre. 

Joseph Hopkinson could not have greatly resembled 
his father, of whom John Adams wrote that " his head 
was no larger than a good-sized apple," for he was re- 
nowned for his personal beauty. He and his wife were 
great favorites in the Quaker City social world, and no 
doubt many of their friends visited them in Bordentown. 
Thomas Moore, the sweet Irish poet, was a frequent 
visitor at their house in Philadelphia, and often during 
his residence in the little cottage on Judge Richard 
Peters's estate facing the Schuylkill's "flowery banks" 
journeyed to nearby Bordentown in their company to 
enjoy its lovely views, so justly renowned in the early 
nineteenth century. When leaving the former city he 
paid tribute to the charms of Mrs. Hopkinson — who 
used to sing his own songs to him at her harpsichord — 
in the following pleasing verses : 

** Nor did she her enamoring magic deny. 

That magic his heart had relinquished so long ; 
like eyes he had loved was her eloquent eye. 
Like them did it soften and weep at his song. 
19 289 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

Oh ! blest be the tear and in memory oft 

May its sparkle be shed o'er his wandering dream. 

Oh ! blest be that soft eye, and may passion as soft. 
As free from a pang, ever mellow its beam !" 

Many were the musical-parties given by Joseph 
Hopkinson and his wife at the old Bordentown home- 
stead. One of the greatest frequenters of them was 
Joseph Bonaparte. He was very fond of " ze clevair 
Hopkinsons," as he called them, and in his will remem- 
bered his friend Joseph with a bust of Napoleon. An 
amusing anecdote is told of his having wept in the 
presence of a large company over Mrs. Hopkinson's 
plaintive rendition of " The Last Rose of Summer" 
when that old-time favorite was first introduced to 
Bordentown. It is with these musical-parties that the 
Hopkinson Mansion is particularly associated in the 
annals of Bordentown 's social history. In its old 
parlors the Hopkinsons, father and son, have played 
and sung. Colonel Kirkbride has tuned his violin and 
jokingly implored his friend Tom Paine to give the 
ladies a tune, and the Misses Guest from over the river 
and Mrs. Hopkinson have aired their melodious voices. 

The villagers of to-day have declared the house 
haunted ; and if it is frequented by ghosts, they must 
be delightful ones. Sad to relate, though, no spook- 
hunting visitor has yet acknowledged he heard the faint 
tinkle of a spinet or the wail of a violin as he wandered 
about it in the moonlight searching for the spirits of the 
long ago. 



290 




BONAPARTE HOUSE 

BORDENTOWN 

WHERE JOSEPH BONAPARTE, EX-KING OF SPAIN 
AND NAPLES, REFUSED THE CROWN OF MEXICO 

lONAPARTE HOUSE, the New 
Jersey mansion of a Bonaparte 
who once wielded the sceptre on 
the throne of Spain, is only a 
fading memory to the world at 
large. Years ago it was destroyed 
and its beautiful park and gardens 
laid waste by time and neglect, 
but it still lives on in Bordentown like the deathless palace 
of Alladin. In that city to-day there are a few old resi- 
dents who still cherish every recollection of " Pointe 
Breeze" the magnificent and its regal owner who had 
played a part in the history of Europe. 

It was some time during the year 1816 that a portly 
but graceful gentleman, with features closely resembling 
those of the great Napoleon, drove over from Trenton 
to Bordentown in company with his business-agent. The 
day was fair and the scenery beautiful, and at every mile- 
stone the occupants of the carriage became more and 
more enamoured with the country. On finally reaching 
Bordentown, the portly gentleman, who was none other 
than Joseph Bonaparte, then calling himself Comte de 

291 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

Survilliers, had decided to purchase a home in its midst 
as a peaceful haven of refuge for his persecuted family. 

Two years later we find him established in all his glory 
in a mansion on a slight eminence overlooking the Dela- 
ware, called Pointe Breeze. This romantic spot was a 
portion of an estate purchased for him from the Sayre 
family. Stephen Sayre, who occupied the mansion house 
with his wife and son until the late summer of the year 
Bonaparte drove to Bordentown with a view to purchas- 
ing an estate, was quite a noted figure in colonial history. 
When a young man he visited London, where he mar- 
ried a lady of rank possessed of a large fortune. He 
became a leader of fashion in the London world, and his 
popularity caused him to be chosen high-sheriff of the 
city in 1774. He early became interested in the inde- 
pendence of his native country, and secretly did all he 
could to promote the cause. In October of 1775 he 
was arrested on a charge of high-treason, made against 
him by a sergeant in the royal guards. This man, an 
American, charged him with being in a plot to seize the 
king on his way to Parliament and overthrow the gov- 
ernment. His papers were seized, and at the instigation 
of Lord Rockford he was committed to the Tower. Sub- 
sequently he was tried and acquitted, but his confine- 
ment produced his ruin. Having lost fortune and 
friends, he became Dr. Franklin's private secretary, and 
was employed by him on many important missions. 

After New Jersey had passed the law * for the count's 
benefit permitting an alien to own real estate, Bonaparte 

*This law caused New Jersey to be nicknamed " New Spain" and 
"The Royal State." 

292 



BONAPARTE HOUSE 



immediately began remodelling the Sayre dwelling. 
Skilled workmen were brought from Philadelphia to 
decorate its interior and gardeners to plan a large park. 
Near the water-edge he erected the famous Belvedere, in 
which some writers have asserted a sentinel was always 
on guard to report any suspicious equipages winding 
down the Trenton Road. The first Bonaparte House, 
an oblong frame building with two side wings, was 
erected about 1790, and destroyed by fire three years 
after, while Bonaparte occupied it. In constructing a 
second residence, the Comte de Survilliers, we are told, 
used his new stables. These were some distance away 
from his house and near the Trenton Road. By many 
alterations and extensions he succeeded in converting 
them into a very handsome structure. It is described as 
long and rather low, with its most distinguishing feature 
a wide front door opening into a regal hall. This hall, 
with its sumptuous objects of art brought direct from 
Luxembourg and other places of renown abroad, was a 
wonderful sight, even in the eyes of the travelled first 
families of the Bordentown aristocracy. An old lady of 
Bordentown used to repeat a story of how when taken 
there as a girl she was so dazzled by its elegance that 
she mistook one of the count's black-garbed lackeys for 
himself, and made a profound curtsey to the astonished 
factotum. 

The count's family living in " Bonaparte Park" 
consisted of Louis Mailliard, his confidential friend, and 
Adolph Mailliard, his son ; France La Coste and his 
beautiful wife and boy, and William Thibaud and his 
daughter, besides many dependants and less important 

293 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



followers. His eldest daughter, the Princess Zenaide 
Charlotte Julie, and her husband, Prince Charles de 
Canino and Musignano, lived at the nearby Lake Villa, 
which he erected for them. His youngest daughter, the 
Princess Charlotte, presided over Bonaparte House for 
many years. She was of a petite prettiness, and became 
a favorite in Bordentown and Philadelphia, owing to her 
merry temperament. When in 1824 she embarked for 
Italy to rejoin her mother, the famous Nicholas Biddle 
eulogized her in thirty-four lines written in her album 
on board the steamboat " Philadelphia." While in 
Italy, in 1827, she married her cousin, Napoleon Louis, 
Grand Duke of Cleves and Berg, eldest son of Louis 
Bonaparte by his queen Hortense Beauharnais, and 
brother of Napoleon III. 

In " A Sketch of Joseph Bonaparte, by Helen Berke- 
ley," which appeared in "Godey's Lady's Book" for April, 
1845, that old-time author, in a description of a visit to 
Bonaparte House with her husband and nieces, has left 
us the most interesting and intimate picture extant of the 
count and his Bordentown residence. Treating of the 
first morning, she says : 

"The tea-service removed, our host gave some private directions to 
the servants, which they obeyed by producing two handsomely-bound 
volumes, large enough to look (at the first glance) like a good-sized port- 
folio of engravings, rather than a book. One was placed upon a table, 
immediately under a chandelier, which threw upon it a perfect flood of 
light, and the other given to Mr. T. [William Thibaud, a member of 
his household] to dispose of as he chose. The count then arranged 
seats for Clara and myself at the table, and Mr. T. invited his daughter 
and Mr. Sindly to join him at another table. Our host opened the 
book, which was full of costly engravings, representations of Napoleon's 

294 



BONAPARTE HOUSE 



life and the different warlike acts he had performed. He paused at every 
picture, and grew enthusiastic as he recounted the different scenes which 
had been thus splendidly commemorated. His cheek flushed and his 
eyes grew brighter as he proudly and affectionately exclaimed, ' There 
never was but one Napoleon.' Frequently he would sigh, and place his 
hand over his heart, and say, in a tone which perhaps his broken English 
rendered more touching, ♦ I sigh for the death of my poor brother;' and 
at other times he would say, * Oh, they did him great wrong ; my 
brother had great wrongs, madame, and now he is dead.' The excite- 
ment was at times painful, and averted my mind so completely from the 
pictures that I could not do justice to their merit." 

Of the next morning she says : 

"We found the count as full of vivacity and amiability as ever. 
When we arose from the table, he asked us if we would like to see his 
private library and take a general tour of the house. Our answer was, 
as you may imagine, a joyful affirmative. Mr. T. ordered the key of 
the private library to be brought, and a servant preceded us up-stairs with 
the key in his hand. The door was opened, we entered, it closed 
again, and I heard the servant lock the door and walk away. I looked 
around. The apartment was filled, or rather lined, with elegant book- 
cases and handsomely-bound books, but there was no door visible, and I 
was sure we were locked in. 

** It seemed rudeness to feel any uneasiness, yet it was unavoidable — 
the proceeding seemed so strange a one. At all events, I thought it 
some consolation to know we were all together. After we had walked 
around the room and examined the books and a few paintings that hung 
on the wall and many rich vases which had belonged to Napoleon, the 
count touched a secret spring, and several rows of skilfully painted book- 
cases flew back and displayed a set of drawers. These he opened, and 
drew out a number of caskets containing splendid jewels of all descrip- 
tions. Several clusters looked like jewelled handles of swords ; others 
portions of crowns rudely broken off; others like lids of small boxes ; 
many of them were ornaments entire. He showed us the crown and 
rings he wore when king of Spain, also the crown, robe, and jewels 

295 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

in which Napoleon was crowned. When our eyes had been sufficiently 
dazzled by the glare of diamonds and emeralds to satisfy him, he touched 
another concealed spring, which gave to view another set of drawers 
and displayed to us many of Napoleon's valuable papers. His treaties 
and letters were carefully bound round by ribbons and fastened by jew- 
elled clasps. Some of the papers he opened and read to us, then 
returned them to their places with a care which almost amounted to 
veneration. At length all the papers were returned, the robe and 
jewels safe in their hi^ing-phces, and the count looked around the room, 
as much as to say he had nothing further to show us at present. 

"While I was wondering how we were to make our exit, he 
approached a bookcase at the end of the room, pressed his finger on a 
particular place, and the whole case flew back, which showed a door, 
which opened with a lock, and we entered into the count's summer 
sleeping-apartment. It consisted of a chamber, dressing- and bathing- 
room, with a small studio, or rather boudoir. The curtains, canopy, and 
fiirniture were of light blue satin, trimmed with silver. Every room 
contained a mirror reaching from the ceiling to the floor. Over the bed 
hung a splendid mirror, and also one over the table. The walls were 
covered with oil-paintings, principally of young females, with less cloth- 
ing about them than they or you would have found comfortable in our 
cold climate, and much less than we found agreeable when the count, 
without ceremony, led us before them, and enumerated the beauties of 
paintings with the air of an accomplished amateur. In every room of 
the house there were statues of Napoleon in some difi^erent position and 
of various sizes. There were also statues of his father and mother and 
all the family. To the statue of Pauline, in particular, the count called 
our attention, and asked us to admire it. He stood some time perfectly 
enraptured before it, pointing out to us what a beautiful head Pauline 
had, what hair, what eyes, nose, mouth, chin, what a throat, what a 
neck, what arms, what a magnificent bust, what a foot, enumerating all 
her charms, one after another, and demanding our opinion of them. 
Necessity made us philosophers, and we were obliged to show as much 
sang-froid on the subject as himself, for it was impossible to get him 
away without our prudery exciting more attention than would have 
been pleasant. When the count was satisfied with the eulogiums we 

296 



BONAPARTE HOUSE 



bestowed upon his fair sister, he led us on, remarking, as he turned away 
from the statue, <Ah, she was very beautiful, very beautiful was Pauline, 
but too ambitious. Nothing could satisfy her ; she always felt as if my 
poor brother was robbing her of a kingdom, instead of bestowing one 
upon her ; but she was so beautiful.' , . . The count next conducted 
us to his winter suite of apartments. They were decorated much in the 
style of his summer ones, excepting the furniture was of crimson and gold." 

In the grand hallway of Bonaparte House, it has been 
quite truthfully asserted, more Royalists have walked 
than in any other house in New Jersey. It was there 
Joseph Bonaparte received the deputation from Mexico 
which came to offer him the crown of that nation. 
Tired of unruly kingdoms, he wisely refused the honor, 
remarking, that he had " worn two crowns, and would 
not lift a finger to secure a third." Amid its grandeur 
Clauzel, Lafayette, Desmonettes, Napoleon III., Lalle- 
mand, Clay, Webster, Adams, Girard, Scott, and many 
other famous figures in history have waited to be greeted 
by America's one long-resident king. 

Although Joseph Bonaparte had much of Napoleon's 
egotism, and was prone to lecture his guests and ser- 
vants, and ofttimes scandalized the country with his esca- 
pades, he was sincerely loved for his open-heartedness and 
generous hospitality. During his residence in Borden- 
town he increased the prosperity of the place, and made 
it almost as famous as his brother did Saint Helena. 
When he left for Trenton on his way to set sail for Eng- 
land, in July, 1832, the very day of the Due de Reich- 
stad's death, there was great sadness among the towns- 
people. After he had gone, Bordentown seemed indeed 
deserted without its roval benefactor. 

297 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

In after years he returned there but once, and that 
was in 1837, "to settle up his affairs," as he told his 
former neighbors. When he departed again, after this 
final farewell, many a household was richer by some 
souvenir of the Corsican family that had occupied half 
the thrones of Europe. He died a few years later in 
Italy, in 1844. By his will he left Bonaparte Park and 
most of his New Jersey property to his eldest grandson, 
Joseph Lucien Charles Napoleon, son of Zenaide and 
Prince Charles, fondly believing that it would remain in 
the Bonaparte family forever. Prince Joseph, as he was 
popularly called, thought otherwise, and soon com- 
menced disposing of the farms surrounding the park. In 
1847 Bonaparte House and park were put up at auction 
and sold to a Mr. Richards. He disposed of them in a 
few years to Henry Beckett, Esq., a son of Sir John 
Beckett, of Somerley Park, Lincolnshire, England. This 
Mr. Beckett, who is known in Bordentown as " the 
destroyer," tore down the famous Bonaparte House and 
erected the hideously ugly dwelling which occupies the 
site to-day. 



298 



LAKE VILLA 

BORDENTOWN 



WHERE THE PRINCESS ZENAIDE TRANS- 
LATED SCHILLER, AND PRINCE CHARLES 
WROTE ON AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY 




ONNECTED with the former 
Bonaparte House by a one-time 
>(l covered passage is a dwelling 
erected by the count for his 
daughter Zenaide and her hus- 
band Charles Lucien, Prince de 
Canino and Musignano, whom 
il she married at Brussels in 1822. 
It is a long, low dwelling of plastered bricks, and is still 
standing on the borders of the dried up little lake from 
which it took the name of Lake Villa. 

There behind its cool, wide green shutters, in the midst 
of the great park garden, with its hundreds of blooming 
trees and shrubs, the romantic flower-painting and poetic 
princess and her handsome prince spent the first summers 
of their happy married life. Many pleasing pictures of 
them have come down to us in the traditions of old 
Bordentown. Scores of little maids in the long ago, 
lured by the fragrance which crept through the princess's 
garden hedge, tore their frocks and pantalets and hurt 
their childish fingers in trying to obtain a peep of the 

299 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

hidden world beyond it. The princess was very fond of 
children, and every wistful face she found there was al- 
ways made happy by a present of some wonderful foreign 
sweetmeat or a spray of flowers. A pretty story is told 
of her loaning her first-born's christening-robes to be 
worn in a like service by the daughter of one of her 
father's humble female servitors. The poor woman, it is 
said, was so overwhelmed by the honor that she stopped 
at the doors of all her friends' homes on the night of the 
ceremony to tell of her child's luck, which she regarded 
as something miraculous. 

One of the large upper-story rooms of Lake Villa 
was used by the princess as a studio, and in the adjoin- 
ing room, her husband kept his cases and cabinets of 
insects and birds. The villagers took great delight in 
securing specimens for the latter room, as the prince 
when pleased was very liberal with his silver pieces. The 
princess spent many happy hours in her studio working 
with her brush over some bit of Bordentown landscape, 
or translating Schiller, of whose dramas she was very 
fond. In the afternoons, when wearied from his wood- 
land rambles, the prince would join her with his literary 
work on American ornithology. While at Lake Villa 
he wrote several volumes on bird history from the knowl- 
edge he had obtained of the feathered inhabitants of 
old Bordentown. A very sumptuous edition of his 
"Natural History of the Birds of the United States," 
written with Alexander Wilson, was brought out in Lon- 
don about twenty-five years ago. 

In the first summer of this noble couple's residence at 
Lake Villa they gave many garden-parties. A notable 

300 



LAKE VILLA 



one occurred in June of the year 1 824, given as a fare- 
well entertainment for the Countess Charlotte, the prin- 
cess's younger sister. This maiden, who is said to have 
been the fairer of the two, set sail in the following month 
for Italy to visit her mother. The pretty and somewhat 
coquettish Charlotte was a favorite in American society. 
Old Dame Gossip has it that two prominent young men 
of the Quaker City once fought a duel with pistols over 
one of her disputed dances ; and from the gushing lines 
inscribed to her by a gallant of the house of Biddle when 
she left our shores she must have been very popular 
indeed. 

Many aristocratic assemblages met among the rose- 
bordered walks of Bonaparte Park on garden-party days 
while the birds sang and the gentle deer gazed at the 
company from behind green coverts. Surrounded by an 
attentive audience we see Commodore Stewart, with his 
blue eyes sparkling, telling one of his anecdotes. " Old 
Ironsides," as his neighbors lovingly referred to him 
after his death, was then living at beautiful Montpellier, 
up on the bluffs. This old house, now occupied as an 
industrial school for colored children, has a grewsome 
story connected with its early history, — the hot-tempered 
Frangois Frederici, General of Surinam, according to local 
tradition, having there beaten one of his bound servants 
to death. The ghost of the poor unfortunate is still a 
terror to the superstitious persons who wander in the 
vicinity of the house at night. 

Another notable who visited there was Joseph Hop- 
kinson, a leader of the literati of Philadelphia. Among 
the many guests one might be sure of finding the Gren- 

301 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



villes, Coxes, Redmans, and Dickinsons from Trenton ; 
the Morrises, Binneys, Shippens, and Moreaus from 
nearby Morrisville ; the Couverts, Bainbridges, and 
Greens from Maidenhead, and always a large contin- 
gent of Philadelphia aristocracy. Here the inevitable 
strawberries and shad, the usual garden-party menu of 
early Trenton and Philadelphia, was varied by fancy 
concoctions planned by the count's chef. His men 
servants acting as waiters, garbed in black civilian dress 
and wearing beards and mustachios, must have caused 
much comment. Another feature of entertainment was 
the sails in the swan-boats on the lake. These boats were 
made in Europe for Bonaparte, and added greatly to the 
embellishment of the Park. 

Although life at Bonaparte House was conducted with 
a show of elegance dazzling to the eyes of Bordentown, 
there was always a republican simplicity exhibited in 
the princess's private mode of living at the Lake Villa. 
Her children were generally dressed in the simplest of 
fabrics, often procured by the princess at Trenton em- 
poriums. She frequently drove over from Bordentown 
to that city and did her shopping, attended only by one 
woman servant. A prominent New Jersey antiquarian 
has in his collection of old chintzes taken from famous 
beds a portion of a patch-work quilt given to him by 
an old lady of Bordentown, interesting from having once 
been the coverlet of the little Prince de Musignano, 
Zenaide's oldest son, and the inheritor of Bonaparte 
House. It is of the cheapest cotton material, costing in 
those days half a shilling a yard, and yet it is said his 
highness reposed under it many winter nights. 

302 



LAKE VILLA 



The Lake Villa, from being so near the highway, was 
generally the first stopping-place for visitors en route 
to visit the count. Of all the Bonaparte houses left in 
Bordentown it is the most interesting. There are five 
still standing in various states of neglect. The dilapi- 
dated lodge, now called the " Wash-House," facing 
directly opposite the nearby home of the count's phy- 
sician, at present occupied by Mr. J. Turner Brakeley, thef 
well-known naturalist and authority on mosquitoes ; the 
home of the count's faithful secretary, Mailliard, now used 
as a military academy ; and the Garden House, out on 
the Trenton Road. They all have their stories and tales 
clinging to them as fondly as the ivy does in reality, but 
none have been made famous by as charming a person- 
ality as the fairy-story-hke princess of whom it could be 
written, as the famous Madame Junot said of the queen 
her mother, " She was an angel of goodness." 



\ 



303 



LINDEN HALL 

BORDENTOWN 




WHERE THE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW OF THE QUEEN OF 
THE TWO SICILIES TAUGHT A BOARDING-SCHOOL 



:NOTHER house in Bordentown 
connected with the Bonaparte 
dynasty is quaint Linden Hall, 
which looks like a row of little 
eighteenth-century houses. It 
was erected at the end of the 
eighteenth century by Major 
Fraser, of Charleston, South 
Carolina. This gentleman, a son of Scotland, had served 
in the British army with his friend Dr. Burns, of Borden- 
town, and it was while visiting him that he purchased 
the land for his future dwelling. For many years he 
came there every spring with his family, and staid until 
fall, and after his death his widow, Mrs. Anne Langton 
Fraser, occupied it permanently. 

Francis Lucien Charles Murat, with whose name it will 
ever be most often associated, was the son of the brave 
and unfortunate Joachim Murat, the king of the two 
Sicilies, and Caroline Bonaparte, the sister of the Em- 
peror Napoleon. " Prince Reckless" they still call him 
in Bordentown, for he will always be remembered as the 
most startling figure in its history. From the first day 

304 



LINDEN HALL 



he appeared at Bonaparte House, after an exciting early 
youth in Europe, he flared Hke a sky-rocket on the deco- 
rous town, and his subsequent career on the stage of 
Southern Jersey furnished more food for gossip in his day 
than the uneventful lives of many hundreds of old Bor- 
dentown residents now sleeping in the Christ Church 
graveyard. 

Among his many acts which startled society, the most 
talked of was his romantic marriage to Miss Caroline 
Georgina Eraser, a lovely girl and a prominent belle, 
then admired for her beauty in the famous salons of the 
Beresford and Middleton families of Charleston, as she 
was in after years at the court of Erance. Prince 
Reckless and his fair Georgina were as true and dashing 
a pair of lovers as ever flew o'er the bonnie borders 
of Scotland to Gretna Green, and their elopement had 
much of the charm of those highly-colored ones of 
old-time Dumfriesshire days. It is true no swaying 
post-chaise occupied by an irate father followed them to 
their fate, but the bridegroom reckoned with the enormity 
of jilting a princess, and the bride the disapproval of 
both the interested families. When Joseph Bonaparte 
heard of their quiet drive over the Trenton Road, ending 
in a marriage at old St. Michael's, he was greatly in- 
censed, and vowed the lady of Lucien's choice should 
have the full pleasure of supporting him. 

" The inhabitants of Bordentown are noted for 
their intelligence," Isaac Wilkens, a gentleman of West- 
chester, New York, wrote one hundred and six years ago ; 
and many heads there nodded in approval when they 
heard of the count's remark. It soon proved too true, 
20 305 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

and Murat, who was indeed a prince in his lavish mode 
of spending money, made great inroads on his wife's 
and her sister's private fortunes. After a few years 
of extravagant living about the country, Linden Hall 
was enlarged, new equipages and furniture ordered 
from Philadelphia, costly scenic wall-papers procured 
in Paris, a large glass aviary with an artificial tree 
built in one of the rooms, and many other improve- 
ments made. 

Before Murat's marriage he is said to have wasted 
nearly a hundred thousand dollars in a very princely 
manner of living on his farm at Columbus and in his 
Italian villa near Bordentown. Gambling was his great- 
est passion, and many tales are told of his games at the 
American House and at the White Horse Tavern. Like 
Henry Clay, he would sometimes stay shut in a room 
with his cronies, forgetting even old Father Time in the 
excitement of the stakes. When out of money and 
deserted by his first friends, he made companions of the 
shopmen and liverymen of the village. He never forgot 
that he was a prince though ; and it is related of him that 
while once promenading Chestnut Street, in Philadelphia, 
he was met by one of his rustic chums, who hailed him 
with " How are you, prince ?" and extended his hand. 
" Who the devil are you ? I don't know you here," was 
his indignant reply. 

Soon every sou of the Eraser money had flown, and 
the prince, out of drafts from his relations abroad and 
failing to obtain any help from the count, was in despair. 
The outlook for the future of Linden Hall grew drearier 
every day, and to save their possessions from the bailiff 

306 



LINDEN HALL 



Madame Murat and her sisters Jane and Eliza decided 
they would start a boarding-school. 

The boarding-school with a princess for chief instruc- 
tress proved for many years a great success, although the 
prince at first scoffed at the idea and always cordially 
hated his wife's share in teaching the young idea how to 
shoot. According to the old ladies of Bordentown, — 
and no one has ever disputed them, — the women edu- 
cated at Madame Murat's school were known the world 
over for their fine manners formed there. Like the 
famous Madame Campan * of Paris, who taught the 
daughters of Louis XV. and later the mother of Murat 
and her sisters, Madame Murat believed above all in 
instilling the love of chex-soi in the minds of her pupils. 
The arts of superintending a home, embroidering, lace- 
making, and other feminine accomplishments were always 
first in her curriculum. A daughter of Iturbide, the 
Mexican emperor, is said to have been one of her pupils ; 
and those scholars (generally heiresses) from the West 
Indies and Cuba, which tradition has sent to every old 
boarding-school in such astounding numbers, fairly 
flocked to Madame Murat's. A lady who attended 
school at Linden Hall when a girl gave the following 
interesting glimpse of life there : 

♦* Bordentown in the thirties was one of the most charming spots 
imaginable, and school-girl life at Madame Murat's was delightful. I 
remember very well the large square hallway where bevies of chattering 
girls were wont to congregate in the mornings to froUc and talk over the 



* Madame Campan was the sister of Edmond Charles Genet de 
Charmantal, the famous ** Citizen Genet," who married the daughter 
of Governor George Clinton, of New York. 

307 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

latest whim of dear Miss Eliza. The drawing-room, or parlor as we 
called it, was very elegant, all the furniture was upholstered in red bro- 
cade with a garniture of green laurel leaves and came from the queen's 
palace in Sicily. In the hallway were many dark old pictures, sent to 
the prince by his mother I once heard. 

** Madame Murat was a noble woman and a kind teacher, and we all 
liked the prince, for once a year he gave a party to the girls on the 
receipt of a legacy from abroad." 

Many anecdotes have been told about the Prince Reck- 
less of Bordentown. Perhaps the most interesting and 
amusing authentic one is the story of an assault and bat- 
tery printed in a West Jersey newspaper about fifty years 
ago. It reads : 

♦* The prince had employed a worthless fellow to groom his horses. 
One day he very civilly requested him, as was his constant custom (for 
he was very polite), to do something. The man flatly refused, and 
was so very insolent that Murat, with his awful boot, suddenly helped 
him to the middle of the barn-yard pool. As a matter of course, the 
fellow sued him for assault and battery, confidently anticipating a 
handsome sum for damages. The court-room was filled with a very 
select audience, including many ladies ; for Murat was highly esteemed 
for his elegant manners and commanding person. It was understood 
that he was to plead his own case, and, as he was extremely acute and 
quite learned, great sport was anticipated. The fellow, too, was pro- 
vided with killing evidence, as was supposed ; and Murat, it seemed, 
had little to hope for. On examination, he was confident of having 
received as many as six kicks from Murat, and, in short, of being 
grievously afflicted and misused. Murat demanded that he should show 
the precise spot where the bodily injury was inflicted. He endeavored 
to evade the demand, but the prince insisted ; he accordingly indicated 
the very lowest possible part of the spine, and again asserted that Murat 
had kicked him six times. There the defence rested, and the prosecuting 
attorney made a powerfiil appeal, filled with * the sacred rights of the 
meanest citizen,' * monarchial oppression, ' ♦ star-spangled banner, ' etc., 

308 



LINDEN HALL 



etc. ; but not a word of the vulgar insolence or dishonesty of the laborer, 
who always demanded his full pay, whether a thief or a liar, or as 
indolent as a sloth. Murat addressed the jury in the following conclu- 
sive style, which we cordially recommend to our doctors, lawyers, 
and jurymen, for its convincing use of anatomical knowledge and its 
humor. Bowing profoundly to the bench and jury-box, which hap- 
pened both to be filled with excellent common sense : 

** * My lord, de judge, and gentlemen of the jury, dere has been great 
efforts and much troubles to make everybody believe me a very bad man; 
but that is of no consequence. De man tells you I kick him six times ! 
six times ! so low as possible. I very sorry of the necessity to make him 
show how low it was, but I could not avoid it. Now, my lord and 
gentlemen of the jury, you see this part of the human skeleton (taking 
from the enormous pocket of his hunting-coat a human pelvis with the 
OS coccygis complete and articulated with wires). Here are de bones. 
Dese little bones vat you see here (shaking them to the jury like the end 
of a rattlesnake's tail), dese leede bones are de very place vere de tail 
of de animal shall grow; dat is to say, if de man who sue me were to be 
a veritable jack — vot you call it? — ah! jack-horse, and not only very 
much resemble dat animal, vy you see dese leetle bones, if dey were 
long enough, would be his tail !' The court was convulsed with laughter, 
and the prince, being extremely acute, and knowing he had the best of 
it, drew his speech to an end by stretching out his enormous leg, armed 
with his sporting-boot up to his knee, and clapping his hand on his mas- 
sive thigh so that it resounded through the court-room, exclaimed, * My 
lord and gentlemen, how absurd to say I could give him even von kick 
vid dat, and not to break all to pieces his leetle tail!' 

" It was some time before the judge could gather enough dignity to sum 
up, when the fellow got six cents damages and the prince three cheers." 

In the year 1848, when the French Revolution oc- 
curred, the prince obtained the loan of a sum of money 
and returned to Paris. There he quietly awaited the 
long-expected turn of the wheel of fortune, and as soon 
as he was assured that the star of the Bonaparte fortunes 

309 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

had arisen he sent for his family. Madame Murat's 
boarding-school before that time had seen its period of 
prosperity, and while the prince was dreaming bright 
dreams in Paris his family was on the verge of starva- 
tion in Bordentown. When the welcome letter was 
received by them that they were to join him in France, 
Madame Murat was penniless, and the neighborhood, 
learning the true state of affairs, presented her with a 
purse sufficient to enable her sisters, her children, and 
herself to obtain the wished-for passages. Never was 
there such a snipping and snapping of scissors and rip- 
ping and sewing of silks and calicos in Linden Hall as 
occurred during the last week of the Murats' stay in 
Bordentown. Every woman of social prominence gladly 
took some article from her wardrobe and went to the gala 
sewing-bee to help prepare proper habiliments for the 
grandnieces* and grandnephews of Napoleon to appear in 
when they reached France. On their arrival there, tradi- 
tion says, one of the grandnephews wore a made-over 
livery of a coachman, a Bordentown donation. 

When the day of parting finally arrived and the town 
realized that the Murats were really leaving them to 
take up their rightful positions beyond the sea, all the first 
families of Bordentown came out to tearfully kiss them 
good-by, and the streets were filled with friends as their 
stage-coach rumbled off over the dusty road, bearing them 
away from their early home forever. 

The cordial reception the imperial family gave the 

* Joachim Murat, Achille Murat, and Lucien Murat, Caroline Murat 
and Anna Murat. Caroline later in life married the Baron de Ches- 
seron, and Anna the Duke de Mouchy. 

310 



LINDEN HALL 



Princess Murat did not lessen her liking for her true 
friends of Bordentown, and she and her children cor- 
responded with them for many years, asking questions 
about Linden Hall, their old nurses, the townspeople who 
had married, — sharing in a degree their joys and sor- 
rows as they did in the days when they were poor and 
without high position in their midst. 

In the year 1857 ^^^^ Princess Murat's sister, Jane 
Fraser, wrote to her friend Mrs. Allen — whose old dwell- 
ing, Rose Cottage, faces Linden Hall — the following 
beautiful letter, which has never before been published : 

"Paris, Nov. 22"^ 1857. 
** My dear Mrs. Allen — 

"Among the many changes that have taken place in our dear old village 
it is probable that the memory of the old inhabitants may have passed 
av^^ay with other forgotten things — And yet, I venture to recall myself to 
your mind as one having inherited a claim on the friendship of your 
family. For some years my interest in your domestic circle was from 
time to time gratified by the frequent mention of your household in Bessie 
Harwood's letters, but she has for a long while given up writing and so 
entirely ignorant am I of all that passes in your part of the world that I 
dare not even make inquiry after those near and dear to you lest I should 
awaken some painfial feeling that time may have soothed. 

" Of us you are probably as little informed. We have been very 
mercifully dealt with during the last ten years. The little band that left 
Bordentown scarcely venturing to look forward to any settled resting 
place has taken firm root in a new land. The circle is unbroken and a 
new and precious link has been added in our little Louis, now nearly six 
years of age. Caroline as I suppose you know is married and Joachim 
is the father of two lovely children. My sister and I often talk of the 
old times at Bordentown and we shall always be pleased to see any one 
who can give us information of the friends we left there. I have been 
told that your present residence is just opposite to our house but that that 
last is so changed that we should not recognize our old habitation." 

311 



NEW BELLEVUE 



BORDENTOWN 



WHERE THOMAS PAINE THE REFORMER CON- 
STRUCTED THE MODEL OF HIS FAMOUS IRON BRIDGE 




IGH Up on that portion of Main 
Street called " Hill-Top," where 
one can gaze over miles and miles 
of fertile Pennsylvania farmland, 
is the great old Kirkbride man- 
sion, erected in the latter part of 
the eighteenth century by Colonel 
Josiah Kirkbride, known to his- 
tory as the friend of Thomas Paine. New Belle vue, as 
the mansion used to be called, was much grander than the 
original Bellevue across the river, burned by the British 
soldiers during the Revolution to repay " the rebel Kirk- 
bride" for the active part he took in the cause of freedom. 
All through the dark building, with its mysterious 
passages, and about the old-world garden reminding one 
of some bit of a continental city, are the footprints of 
the immortal Paine. Thomas Paine, the dreamer and 
poet, the worshipped apostle of freedom, and the reviled 
and calumniated free-thinker, lives for us again as we 
view his familiar haunts. The venerable structure has 
been twice enlarged since his death, and has endured the 
vicissitudes of an inn and a girls' seminary, but the room 

312 



NEW BELLEVUE 



is still shown where Paine, with the help of his co- 
worker, John Hall, made the first model of his famous 
iron bridge erected in England in 1790. Years ago a 
strolling wag who occupied it drew on the wall a picture 
of Paine pursued by the Devil, now hidden from curious 
eyes by many paperings. In the days of the mansion's 
use as an inn, when the coaches drew up before its gate 
with loads of passengers every nightfall, the host was 
always sure to assign the most timorous of the party to 
this apartment, never forgetting to inform him that it was 
haunted. Any wearer of the cloth was sure to get it ; 
and it is related of the girls of the old seminary that in 
trailing white night-robes they often played the ghost, 
accompanying their migrations with weird noises to 
further some good dominie's impressions of Thomas 
Paine. 

It was while Paine was staying at New Belle vue, in 
the fall-time of 1783, watching the near completion 
of a little home of his own, that he received the letter 
from General Washington, then at Rocky Hill, which 
was the first joyful harbinger of recognition for his 
brilliant and now generally forgotten services to the 
cause of American independence. As Moncure Daniel 
Conway, his most faithful and loving biographer, says, 
" It is worthy to be engraved on the tombs of both." It 
reads : 

"Rocky Hill, Sept. 10, 1783. 
**Dear Sir, 

" I have learned since I have been at this place that you are at 
Bordentown. Whether for the sake of the retirement or economy I 
know not. Be it either, for both, or whatever it may, if you will come 

313 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

to this place and partake with me, I shall be exceedingly happy to see 
you. 

"Your presence may remind Congress of your past services to this 
country ; and if it is in my power to impress them, command my best 
services with freedom, as they will be rendered cheerfully by one who 
entertains a lively sense of the importance of your works, and who, with 
much pleasure, subscribes himself, 

** Your sincere friend, 

" G. Washington." 

This was from the man who in after years was among 
the friends to forget him. But he had some reason for his 
course of conduct, for Paine's " Letter to George Wash- 
ington" contained an attack on the laurel-strewed career 
of the hero which is said to have rankled in his breast 
until the day of his death. 

Thomas Paine truly loved his adopted Bordentown, 
and in his affection for his friends there and abroad we 
obtain a glimpse of the character of the true Thomas 
Paine little known by the world. Who can read the 
opening verses of his charming lines addressed to Lady 
Smith,* who carried sunbeams into his prison in Paris, 
without obtaining a better understanding of a nature ac- 
cused of every grossness and vice'? In them we see 
Thomas Paine the lover of the beautiful and the apostle 
of the theology of happiness by right living. They make 

* The letters of Lady Smith gave great consolation to Thomas Paine 
when he was confined in the prison of the Luxembourg at the time of 
the French Revolution. Lady Smith was the second wife of Sir Robert 
Smith, or Smythe, as the name is given in the Peerage List, a wealthy 
banker in Paris. The poem Paine wrote to her, entitled "The Castle 
in the Air to the Little Corner of the World," is one of the most charm- 
ing and exquisite of any of his poetic effusions extant. 

314 



NEW BELLEVUE 



us think of his loyalty to his true friends, his generosity 
to his mother, and his childlike love of nature, and we 
wonder how the years could have heaped so much ob- 
loquy upon his grave. During the years Paine was away 
from America his mind was ever full of Bordentown. 
In a letter from London to Mrs. Few, nee Kitty Nichol- 
son, one of his Bordentown favorites, he wrote : 

«* Though I am in as elegant style of acquaintance here as any 
American that ever came over, my heart and myself are three thousand 
miies ^art ; and I had rather see my horse Button eating the grass of 
Bordentown, than all the pomp and shovv^ of Europe." 

There was one friend in Bordentown, at least, who 
must have followed every step of Paine's career abroad, 
and that was Colonel Kirkbride. Josiah Kirkbride and 
Thomas Paine are names ineffably linked together in 
Bordentown annals, and theirs was one of those unusual 
friendships proof against absence and the opprobrium of 
the world. How that good Jerseyman rejoiced over 
Paine's triumphs in Paris and London, where he was 
hailed as a saviour of the people and feted as a man of 
genius and sorrowed in his subsequent downfall. 

In the first years of New Bellevue's existence Paine 
had been one of its most welcome inmates. He is 
recorded as spending many a bright morning in its 
garden, talking over with his friend "the whims and 
schemes" they were to pursue together at Bordentown's 
musical-parties, where Kirkbride always went with his 
violin. Paine sometimes joined in the choruses, and 
there are traditions that he was a great favorite with the 
young people, especially Colonel Kirkbride's daughter 

Polly. \ 

315 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

In John Hall's diary we learn that much good com- 
pany journeyed to Kirkbride's to visit Paine in the years 
1785 and 1786. The list contains such names as Ben- 
jamin Franklin, Gouverneur Morris, Dr. Benjamin Rush, 
Tench Francis, Robert Morris, Rev. Dr. Logan, and many 
others equally as famous. There are numerous glimpses 
of Paine's life at Bordentown in that interesting work 
still preserved by the Steele family of Philadelphia, and 
given to the world by Mr. Conway. What a story for 
his defamers is his kindness to old Mrs. Read, a poor, 
bed-ridden woman, to whom he gave shelter. On one 
of the musty pages is the startling information that 
Paine gave points to John Fitch for his construction of 
the first steamboat when the little inventor came to seek 
him as a possible partner in furthering his enterprise. 
" He would fain have given it to Mr. Paine or me," the 
quaint chronicler writes, " but I, a stranger, refused, and 
Mr. Paine had enough hobbies of his own." So " The 
Saint," or first steamer, seems to have gone begging. 
There are also more intimate details of his life, and 
through Hall the world knows that poor Paine kept a 
body-servant, played chess, and was fond ot repeating 
anecdotes of his fine acquaintance. 

One of the last pictures we have of Thomas Paine In 
connection with Bordentown is his arrival there from 
abroad after his publication of " The Age of Reason." 
Everywhere he was greeted with the scoffs and jeers of 
the generality of the people. Bordentown he still 
regarded as his home, but few extended him any degree 
of welcome, from personal prejudice or fear of their 
more godly neighbors. Then it was that true hospitality 

2>i(> 



NEW BELLEVUE 



shone forth from the great door of New Bellevue, and 
Colonel Kirkbride braved the storm of public opinion 
by receiving his old friend with open arms. For this he 
received a full mead of vituperation, and felt the cruelest 
stings of righteous indignation. Used to the love and 
respect of his fellow-citizens, the sudden great unpopu- 
larity is said to have hastened an illness, bringing him 
death at the end of the year. 

One who visits New Bellevue to-day, coming from 
Main Street, catches a view of the oldest part of the 
building first. This is the dwelling that Thomas Paine 
knew. Standing under its time-worn casements and 
gazing at the aged blooms in the garden, we obtain 
a glimpse of Paine, " the friend of his country," over 
the bridge of a hundred years, which makes us think 
very kindly of the misguided philosopher's memory. 
We see him handsome and stately, as Romney painted 
him, " The man with genius in his eyes," walking the 
old box-bordered paths, drinking in the blue of the sky, 
the song of the birds, and the hundred voices of Mother 
Nature. Joslah Kirkbride is with him, — always with 
him I Sharing his joys and his many sufferings. As 
we stand there musing and reminiscent, the panorama 
changes, and the blue of the sky darkens. Two great- 
coated figures open the garden gates, and hurry through 
the curious crowd to the chaise which is to carry them 
on that last wild ride together to New York. The crowd 
grows larger, and becomes a surging mob. After them It 
follows, hooting and caUing, and now and again singing 
the doleful music of " The Rogue's March." In every 
city they reach it is the same, — an inquisition : " Down 

2>^7 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

with the vile perpetrator of ' The Age of Reason' ! " In- 
sults are heaped upon them, but still there is no fear in 
their hearts, for both are brave men and have the courage 
of their convictions. One has stood under the shadow 
of the guillotine and heard the awful rattle of those carts 
of death — the tumbrils — on the bloody streets of Paris, 
and still been unafraid, and the other feels for the man 
beside him a friendship which has withstood all the tests 
of this world and is stronger even than death. On they 
journey, as they will for centuries, long after New Bellevue 
has become a memory. 



318 



THE GIRARD HOUSE 

MT. HOLLY 

WHERE STEPHEN GIRARD, PHILADEL- 
PHIA'S PHILANTHROPIST, SOLD BUNS AND 
SWEETMEATS DURING THE REVOLUTION 




HADY Mill Street, 



little 



very 
changed since the voices of gay 
red-coated soldiers and the rum- 
ble and groan of their baggage- 
wagons disturbed the sweet 
Quaker quiet, bears the honor 
of retaining the miniature square 
house where Stephen Girard and 
his young wife lived for a part of the Revolution, and 
earned their living by selling buns, raisins, cock-a-nee- 
nee, and other sweetmeats to the British soldiery and the 
sombre-garbed Quaker children of the neighborhood. 

Mill Street is almost the same, but many a sun has 
shone on Time's dial since those long-dead days. The 
British regiments with, tradition says, a future king 
among their number — youthful Prince William Henry 
— marched away six-score years ago, and the Mt. Holly 
children of such quaint names as Atlantis Gandy, 
Lucretia Peppit, Remembrance Eayres are asleep under 
the shadow of the Friends' Meeting-House, close 

319 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



by the old-time walk and playground, Woodpecker 
Lane.* 

During the Revolution Mt. Holly was considered a 
stragetic point, and was frequented by both armies. In 
the year 1 772 it contained almost one thousand inhabi- 
tants and two hundred dwellings. Although not the 
county-seat, it was quite a market centre. Among the 
most important families of that time were the Coxes, 
Atkinsons, Whites, Chews, Burrs, Blacks, Newbolds, 
Brians, and Strattons. Many prominent Quakers, mem- 
bers of what has been termed the landed gentry of 
Southern Jersey, had ancestral estates and manor houses 
in the vicinity. On Branch Street, in the centre of the 
town, there stood at that time the deserted dwelling of 
John Woolman, the good Quaker preacher, then in 
England. In its little rooms he had lived his noble life 
and thought his beautiful thoughts. There, too, he 
must have worked on his famous journal and ethical 
essays, so beloved by Charles Lamb, and called by a 
more modern writer the sweetest and purest autobiogra- 
phy in the English language. On Brainard Street was 
the church of the noted John Brainard, where he upheld 
the principles of free government despite the threats of 
Tories and the risk of personal danger. The British 
burned his church when they left Mt. Holly, but the 
little school-house where he taught the children of the 
neighborhood is still standing. 

Richard Cox Shreve has left us some interesting 
glimpses of the Mt. Holly of a little later date in his 
remembrances. He writes : 

* Woodpecker Lane is now called Wood Lane. 
320 



THE GIRARD HOUSE 



" One of my earliest recollections is of the illumination in Mt. Holly 
in the winter of 1 8 1 5 in celebration of the treaty of peace between 
Great Britain and the United States after the War of 18 12. 

"1 was seven years old at the time. My father, Charles Shreve, 
lived on Mill Street, in the house adjoining the one where I now live. 
My grandfather. Major Richard Cox, for whom I was named, lived in 
the house next to the Farmers' Bank. He had been an officer of the 
Revolutionary army. I remember riding about the streets of the town 
in a sleigh and seeing my grandfather's house brightly illuminated for the 
celebration. Pieces of boards with holes bored through them had been 
placed across the windows, and in the holes were thrust tallow dips. 
Major Cox was a middle-sized man, rather stout, and wore knee- 
breeches. John Watson, the author of 'Watson's Annals of Philadel- 
phia,' said to me one day, at my house, that Major Cox was 'the 
man of the town. ' Squire Samuel Clark once told me that he remem- 
bered Major Cox as the principal man of Mt. Holly, and as being 
pretty arbitrary. . . . 

" When I was a boy there was a whipping-post standing at the 
eastern end of the market-house. The post was a little wider one way 
than the other, and the culprit's arms were tied around it and he was 
lashed on the bare back, though I never saw it done. Here at this end 
of the market-place when I was a child, before I had gone to Westtown 
Quaker school, a May-pole was erected every year, usually a tall pine about 
forty feet high with a green top. The little girls and boys of the town, 
dressed in their best, would join hands and dance around the May-pole. 
It was as regular a feature of the ist of May as the Christmas-tree now 
is of the 25th of December. Here at the market-place also, when the 
stage from Philadelphia arrived with the mail, the people would gather 
around, and the stage-driver would call out the names of persons for 
whom he had newspapers. Two persons then often joined in taking 
one paper — one of the subscribers would read it on the evening of its 
arrival and pass it over to his neighbor on the next morning. . . . 

"Before 1820, when we went to Philadelphia, we used to cross 

from Cooper's Ferry to the foot of Arch Street in the horse-boat. 

There were, I think, six horses, three on each side of the boat, and the 

tread of their feet caused the paddle-wheels to revolve. * Old Billy' 

21 321 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



Cooper, as everybody called him, owned all that part of Camden. His 
hotel at the landing was an old-fashioned frame structure, one story and 
a half high, and there was a long porch, and plenty of chairs on it. 
The market-men stopped there. He was wealthy, but saw to the 
starting of the boats himself, and that the passengers would get aboard in 
time. He would call out * Over to Arch Street, all aboard, over to 
Arch Street!' At Arch Street on the other side the men would call out 
« Over to Billy Cooper's, all aboard!' " 

It was early in the year 1777, upon learning of Lord 
Howe's arrival near Philadelphia, that the one-eyed 
French pedler, then mockingly called " old Girard," 
although still in his twenties, packed his sack with for- 
eign knick-knacks from recently-arrived merchantmen 
lying off Water Street. With his newly-acquired wife, 
Polly Lum, the ship-builder's daughter, he hurriedly 
fled from his Philadelphia home. Tradition has it that 
he peddled his way across the country to Mt. Holly, 
where upon his arrival he purchased a partly constructed 
house on Mill Street for the sum of five hundred dollars. 
There on that street of history, where many famous 
people have walked, — the stately William Penn, good 
John Woolman on his errands of mercy, young James 
Fenimore Cooper, the future novelist, in his gray wool 
stockings, and a host of others, — this odd couple started 
housekeeping and hung out a sign telling the townspeople 
they had gewgaws and sweetmeats to sell. 

Historians have differed upon Mrs. Girard's personal 
appearance. Some have written that she was exceed- 
ingly pretty, and others that she was of a very plain 
appearance ; but she will ever be thought of at Mt. 
Holly as the former, for there are tales that her male 

322 



THE GIRARD HOUSE 



customers, much to Girard's anger, found her so attrac- 
tive that for the pleasure of gazing into her bright eyes 
and Hstening to her gay laughter many of them spent all 
their stray pennies for tobacco and lollipops, thereby help- 
ing to form the nucleus of her husband's great fortune. 
First there were blue-coated boys for customers, and who 
knows but what the great Governor Livingston when 
boarding at Atkinson's Tavern patronized the pretty 
Polly. Then came a time when the British marched 
into town with bugles blowing and banners flying, scaring 
most of the inhabitants, including Girard, who was of a 
very timorous nature. In the private dwellings of the 
richest families and the Friends' Meeting-House the red- 
coats were quartered. In the latter place one can see 
to-day the marks of the commissary's cleaver and meat- 
knife upon the ancient seats where many patient forms 
sat quietly during thousands of meetings waiting for 
inspiration. But the British did not come to Mt. Holly 
with the intention of harming the inhabitants, and soon 
Girard's little shop was better patronized than ever before, 
and Mrs. Girard, so tradition says, neglected most of her 
household duties to wait on the English dandies, who 
demanded all of her attention. The " scarlet fever," as 
admiration for the redcoats was termed in those days, 
owing to a Jersey woman's * clever bon-mot, was easily 
caught by the woman, who after a short period of married 
life had grown to loathe her morose and rather stern 
husband. It has been said that their marital troubles 
reached a culmination when Girard, entering his shop at 
an inopportune moment, saw a British officer snatch a 

* Susannah Livingston. 
323 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

kiss from the merry Polly across her counter. Frequent 
were the altercations which occurred in the little house 
after that date, and there may be truly said to have been 
enacted the first scenes of " The lU-Assorted Marriage" 
which turned Girard into a hopeless cynic and drove his 
pretty, pleasure-loving wife to a mad-house. 

A local historian, in an issue of The New Jersey 
Mirror, the old Burlington and Mt. Holly paper started 
by Nathan Palmer in 1818, has given an interesting 
anecdote of what is believed in some measure to have 
been the cause of Stephen Girard's removal from Mt. 
Holly. 

** A farmer named Bill Clark, in coming into town, was required to 
pass by Stephen's shop, and his little dog ' Snyder' used to annoy ' Bill' 
by running out of the store and snapping at his heels. On one occa- 
sion the dog secured a good hold on ' Bill's' pants, and in trying to kick 
him loose he flung the little beast into the store. This enraged Stephen 
very much, and he hotly inquired of Clark, ' What for you kick my 
dog ?' 

♦♦ It happened that it was * Bill's' day for being intoxicated, and he 

retorted that the next time he would shoot the d d dog ; and in a 

short time afterwards he carried out this threat. 

"The little dog was Stephen's pet and companion, and he began a 
lawsuit to recover damages for his loss. The jury, however, found in 
favor of Clark. So he vowed he would not live among such ungrateful 
people. True to his word, he sold out, shut up shop, and went to 
Philadelphia." 

The truth of the story of Girard and his dog is 
vouched for by many old residents of Mt. Holly, but we 
read in the record of his life that when he left there he 
did so thinking that Philadelphia was a better place for 

324 



THE GIRARD HOUSE 



him to have made a name for himself in the world than 
this little Jersey town, and such a knowledge must have 
had a powerful influence on a man of his character. 

Whether Stephen Girard sold his house and shop on 
leaving for the first city of his adoption, which he so 
truly loved, is not known, but in 1812 it was purchased 
by William Rogers, who completed its unfinished rooms. 
It is now known as the residence of the Holman family, 
and has been little changed since the days pretty Polly 
sold sweetmeats to the soldiers, and Stephen Girard called 
his barking dog Snyder away from the passing chaise or 
pedestrian. 



325 



THE CREIGHTON HOUSE 

HADDONFIELD 

WHERE DOLLY PAYNE PREPARED FOR HER 
ENTRANCE INTO THE GREAT WORLD 




|N the old King's Highway, in 
the quiet Quaker town of Had- 
donfield, is the Creighton Tavern, 
— better known perhaps as the 
American House. The building 
has been very little changed since 
its erection by Timothy Malleck 
in 1750. In one of its quaint, 
unaltered rooms the State legislature and the Council of 
Safety met during the Revolution, and the ancient strap 
hinges on the door are the very ones which looked 
upon those bands of ardent souls in the long ago. The 
parlor, or best room, hall, and chambers where " Sweet 
Dorothy Payne," who became the famous Dolly Madi- 
son, sported with her good Uncle Creighton and the 
Creighton cousins, would surely be recognized by her 
if she could come back there and view them to-day. 

Dolly Payne as the gracious and brilliant mistress of 
the White House has been so often written of that her 
Quaker girlhood is comparatively forgotten. That she 
once looked at the world, like all good Quaker maids of 
her time, as something apart from her own simple life 

326 



THE CREIGHTON HOUSE 



seems almost incredible when we gaze at her Hkeness by- 
Gilbert Stuart. The elegant dame depicted there in 
shimmering silk and adorned with jewels is very far re- 
moved from the little Dolly of Haddonfield days, whose 
greatest delight was a fine lawn kerchief given to her by 
Uncle Creighton, and donned on the gala days she went 
riding with him in the chaise. 

John Payne, Dolly Payne's father, was a strict member 
of the Society of Friends, and her youth passed in the 
family mansion at Scotchtown, in Hanover County, 
Virginia, and later in Philadelphia, knew many Quaker 
hardships, and self-denials. Deep in her heart the fas- 
cinating Dolly loved the vanities of life. Although her 
pious parents garbed her "soberly" and "without fri- 
volity," they did not succeed in checking the sunshine 
of the maiden's soul. Often when her tired back ached 
in meeting, her eyes sought the windows where the 
swaying trees were beckoning and the birds calling, and 
a longing flooded her gay young heart to run out to the 
lane and off into the great unknown, — Chestnut Street, 
where it was never deemed proper for her to go unat- 
tended. There was the life she loved, and as a child 
could only obtain peeps of to dream over. Fair ladies 
and elegant gentlemen, golden chairs and chariots, and all 
the bustle of fashion. In after years she was given a 
generous share of it, and perhaps it was those starved 
childhood years that made her enjoy it with zest almost 
until the day of her death. One of her grandnieces in a 
memoir has left us a pleasing picture of her at that time. 
Equipped with a " white linen mask," to keep every ray 
of sunshine from her complexion, and a sun-bonnet 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

" sewed" on her head, she used to start off for school 
with her books under her arm, and some dear, wicked 
bauble, a bit of old-fashioned jewelry, or perhaps a 
ribbon, hugged to her heart under her plain dress. 

The visits to Haddonfield were bright spots in Dolly- 
Payne's early life. Hugh Creighton was not a strict 
Friend, and his wife Mary French was a woman of most 
lovable character, with a heart large enough to take in 
all the world's people who chanced to cross her quiet 
pathway. Tavern-keeping in the eighties of the eigh- 
teenth century, although an honorable and profitable 
occupation in Southern Jersey, was frowned upon by the 
generality of Friends, as their discipline did not permit 
them to look on it with favor. Life at her uncle's 
genial hearth was much broader than in her own home 
at Philadelphia. In the former place she obtained some 
of her first impressions of days untinctured by the gray 
shadows of the meeting-house. We can picture her to 
ourselves a replica of one of those quaint, simply-garbed 
ladies in Rosetti's famous picture of " The Ladies at the 
Mitre," and imagine her gazing at the chance fine madam 
or stray gallant as they gazed at the great Dr. Johnson. 

As a girl of eighteen in the year 1 786 she is described 
as being of slight figure, possessing a delicately oval face, 
a nose tilted like a flower, jet black hair, and blue eyes 
of wondrous sweetness. Those beautiful eyes, with their 
power to scintillate with playfulness or mellow with 
sympathy, wrought great havoc with the hearts of the 
Quaker lads of Haddonfield. Although many years 
have flown since she tripped through the quiet streets and 
lanes of the place, her memory is alive there. Elderly 

328 



THE CREIGHTON HOUSE 



people still repeat what their fathers and grandfathers 
once said of her, and from the glowing tributes paid to her 
youthful charms it is easy to imagine that many a good 
Quaker lad's love was laid at her shrine before stern John 
Payne ever bade her accept the hand of John Todd. 

In those early Haddonfield days she often took frolic- 
some rides with her cousins in the mail-coaches that 
stopped twice daily at the tavern, driving a mile or two 
out on the highway and walking home. Then there 
was the rarer pleasure of a visit to Gray's Ferry, on the 
green banks of the Schuylkill, a veritable garden of de- 
light to the youth of old Philadelphia and Southern 
New Jersey, with its flowering dells, mystical grottos, 
and winding walks made fairy-like by grotesque Chinese 
art. Commodore James P. Cooper, U. S. N., who died in 
the town in 1854, ^g^^ ninety-three years, was often her 
devoted attendant on these occasions and on berrying 
excursions, and in later life never tired of singing her 
praises. It is a well known fact that when James Madi- 
son was in power in after years a favorable recommenda- 
tion from Commodore Cooper always received the most 
careful attention, and it was the little Dolly of Haddon- 
field who smiled on them for the sake of Auld Lang 
Syne. 

Many times during the year ** Aunt Creighton" drove 
to Trenton to visit friends on Queen Street, generally 
taking the young people with her. Those trips with her 
kind aunt delighted the merry Quakeress, with her love of 
fine things, inherited no doubt from her courtly ancestors 
the Coles and the Flemings. Wandering through Queen 
Street and Pinkerton Alley shops and fingering the 

329 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



"world's goods" she was as happy as any maiden of 
to-day out for the first time on a shopping-expedition. 

Tradition says that in later years — some months be- 
fore Dolly Payne's marriage to John Todd — she visited 
the Creightons and, helped by her cousins, prepared a part 
of her simple wedding trousseau for her entrance into the 
great world as a wife. The wedding was solemnized in 
the Friends' Meeting-House on Fine Street, Philadelphia, 
on the seventh day of First month, 1790. Through 
January snow the Creightons journeyed from Haddon- 
field to be present at the simple marriage ceremony, and 
there, in the bare, cold meeting-house, they heard their 
cousin Dolly whisper in a tremulous voice her response 
to John Todd, " I, Dorothea Payne, do take thee, John 
Todd, to be my wedded husband, and promise, through 
divine assistance, to be unto thee a loving wife until 
separated by death." 

It is hard to associate the Creighton Tavern with Mrs. 
John Todd, as Dolly Madison's first married life was of 
such short duration. In later years, as the wife of 
James Madison, she never returned to Haddonfield, but 
on many occasions sent invitations to old friends asking 
them to visit her. Those who accepted them found her 
as " Queen Dolly," but with a nature still unchanged. 
Her manners were as simple and as sweet as in the days 
of comparative poverty. Although the gray little 
Quakeress of Haddonfield days was gone forever, and 
had given place to a comely, bejewelled dame in rustling 
brocade, the latter still possessed the heart of the merry 
child who used to make glad a happy Quaker hostelry 
on the King's Highway of Haddonfield. 



330 



THE BRADFORD 

MANSION 



BURLINGTON 



THE HOME OF THE LAST OF THE 
WASHINGTON CIRCLE— THE WIDOW OF 
ATTORNEY-GENERAL WILLIAM BRADFORD 




NOTHER large Quaker settle- 
ment in Southern Jersey is the 
old city of Burlington. Unlike 
Haddonfield, Burlington has not 
changed very much in the last 
hundred years, and still retains an 
eighteenth-century air. On its 
broad streets are many decaying 
mansions whose historic associations would fill a good- 
sized volume. There is the house occupied by Governor 
William Franklin during the happiest years of his gover- 
norship, and where he returned at the last a prisoner of 
the colonists. A short distance away is the dwelling 
where Captain James Lawrence, the naval hero, was born, 
and Jonathan Odell often came to sup during his pas- 
torate in the city. There is another smaller house in 
the town where the former passed some of his early 
youth, and close by is a sister-house where his little play- 
fellow James Fenimore Cooper lived. Buildings linked 

331 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



with our early history greet us at every street corner. A 
few of the " fair and great brick houses" Gabriel Thomas 
saw in the Burlington of 1697 still remain, but they are 
now of very dilapidated and sad appearance. Overlook- 
ing the quiet Delaware is one of the most interesting of 
all the houses in the town, the Bradford Mansion, the 
one-time home of quaint Mrs. William Bradford, born 
Susan Vergerau Boudinot. 

Mrs. Bradford, whose early associates were the Wash- 
ingtons, the Hamiltons, and the Lafayettes, lived to be 
the last of that noble group of dames composing the 
famous Washington circle, — made up of such women 
as Mrs. Madison, Mrs. Carroll, Mrs. Pinckney, Mrs. 
Greene, and Mrs. Rush. Well into the nineteenth cen- 
tury Mrs. Bradford went to church or to take the air in 
her sedan chair, and on state occasions drove in the 
ancient family chariot. The latter rambling affair was 
of a bright yellow color, hung with crimson satin. Up 
to the time of her death her coachman and footmen 
wore half-mourning for the husband who had been 
sleeping over fifty years. Old-fashioned formality and 
the courtly etiquette of colony days lingered in her 
household long after it was but a memory in America. 
She was truly a lady of the old school, and her life was 
as sweet as the fragrance of sandalwood and the leaves 
of verbena. Richard Rush, her kinsman, and one of 
our earliest ministers to England, once wrote of her : 

"From youth, from early boyhood, my recollections of her at her 
own house, at my vmcle's, at my mother's, with whom she was reared 
in part as with a sister, are all of the most grateful kind. Attaching in 
her manners to all, because they sprang from many virtues and solid 

2i2 



THE BRADFORD MANSION 



excellence of her heart, their peculiar grace and kindness were ever 
especially winning to the young, and now as I call up these recollections, 
through hack time associated with a thousand early pleasures, they come 
over me like delightful visions ; no, not visions, for at that time of life 
they are realities unmingled with anything to take from the happiness and 
joy they give ; their vivid impressions live forever, and, momentarily at 
least, renew in us the delight they once offered." 

The Bradford Mansion was erected some time about 
the year 1798 by Mrs. Bradford's father, the famous 
Elias Boudinot. It is spacious and of a simple style of 
architecture, resembling Rose Hill, the Boudinot country- 
house near Philadelphia, destroyed by fire several years 
ago. 

Generations of children loved and feared the great 
blue Chinese porcelain lions which guarded the well-kept 
lawn. They were a very original garden decoration and 
used to be one of the sights of old Burlington. The 
boys of the Friends' School delighted to romp on the 
lawn, for they were pretty sure of the excitement of a 
chase by Ambrose, the colored butler and the autocrat 
of the kitchen. 

Life in that old-time dwelling was very different from 
that we know to-day. Miss Jane J. Boudinot, in her 
charming reminiscences of Mrs. Bradford, writes : 

" The domestic grievance was not known in that household, — its ten 
or twelve servants accomplishing their work with a magical quiet and 
precision. The housekeeper made her daily round with the chamber- 
maid, to assist in arranging the large, old-fashioned, high-post bedsteads, 
with their gay and elaborate hangings in winter and white dimity fes- 
toons in summer. The hall was wide, and contained some beautiful 
statuary, — four groups of seventeenth-century work, the only known 
specimens of the kind in this country. The stairs, with very low steps, 

333 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 

led to a landing on which stood the old clock, a gift from Richard Stock- 
ton, the Signer, which had measured out the moments of those stormy- 
times of the Revolution and had struck the knell of many a footsore, 
weary soldier on the banks of the Delaware. The house possessed also 
a well-stocked library, with many editions of the Bible, from Mrs. Brad- 
ford's father, the founder of the Bible Society in this country, and its 
first president." 

There always was some visitor coming up the garden 
path to visit Mrs. Bradford in the old days. Among 
her constant callers were very antique, queer-looking 
people. Quaint ladies armed with gorgeous beaded 
reticules and snowy-haired gentlemen with snuff-boxes, 
looking as if they had escaped from old pictures and 
had left their eighteenth-century frames at home, were 
often seen fumbling with the Bradford knocker. In 
1850 venerable ladies wearing stomachers of bits of 
lovely brocade of fading hues and gentlemen adorned 
with ruffled shirts might have created a sensation in 
most parts of the world, but Burlington was used to them, 
and they tottered in peace to visit the dearest of their 
few old friends left. Poverty had tortured many of 
their lives and taken their little treasures of better days 
from them one by one, and they missed them ! But once 
inside the hospitable Bradford door they were happy. In 
the ghostly-lighted drawing-room they gazed at the 
mellow tints of portraits painted by Kneller's magic 
brush, viewed the opulent plate, the massive branches 
and single candlesticks which had held the tapers for 
many generations, and saw their wizened faces reflected 
in the unruffled depths of old mahogany, and so knew 
content. 

334 



THE BRADFORD MANSION 

A picturesque figure in Mrs. Bradford's household 
who should not be forgotten was the little governess. She 
was a French refugee from St. Domingo, and had come 
there first during Elias Boudinot's lifetime, as an amanu- 
ensis. The home offered her was a haven of refuge, 
and she lingered on long after her master, and grew old 
in the service of his grandnieces and grandnephews. 
Like all French refugees from the West Indies, she had 
a romance, her lover having been shot dead before her 
eyes. She was very kind to the children, and loved to give 
them sweetmeats and bonbons. Her English was very 
grotesque, and Miss Boudinot relates it was only outdone 
by that of Ambrose, the African butler. " He" with 
that worthy was always " she," and " she" " he." When 
announcing the daily visits of Bishop Doane to his aged 
parishioner, he would invariably say, " De bitchip man. 
Shall she walk up ?" 

Burlington before the War of 1812 was quite a 
summer resort for the fashionables of Philadelphia. The 
Binneys, Whartons, Shippens, Chaunceys, Mcllvains, and 
many other noted families had country-seats there, and 
social intercourse was frequent. For a long period of 
years after her young husband's death, Mrs. Bradford 
seldom appeared in society. All through her long life 
she was ever faithful to his memory. Elias Boudinot, 
her father, was fond of entertaining the friends of his 
youth, and the Washingtons, Laurenses, Rutledges, Day- 
tons, Bayards, and Ogdens are among the distinguished 
families sheltered at one time or another by its ancient 
roof. In the library of the Bradford Mansion this grand 
old man of America wrote his famous " Star of the 

335 



HISTORIC HOUSES OF NEW JERSEY 



West." He was past seventy years of age then, but 
still looked as he did in his excellent portrait painted by 
Sully, the favorite artist of old Philadelphia society. 
All through her life Mrs. Bradford proudly displayed 
to admiring friends many historic keepsakes. One of 
these was a small cushion made from Mrs. Washington's 
brocade wedding-dress. Another was a pair of bracelets 
containing the hair of General Washington. At her 
death she left many of her treasures in her will to friends, 
but by far the greater number of them are now in the 
possession of Miss J. J. Boudinot, of New Jersey. 

The Bradford Mansion of to-day is very different from 
the house Mrs. Bradford knew. Its wide rooms have 
been separated for two estabUshments, and it has been 
much desecrated. The sweeping lawn leading to it has 
been cut up, and time and the hand of man have felled 
some of the aged trees which guarded it like a corps of 
faithful sentinels. It is sad to think that it should have 
passed out of the possession of the family which made it 
celebrated, but that is the fate of most old houses. They 
are doomed to linger on in poverty and neglect long after 
their original owners are sleeping. In poverty, because 
they must starve in their old age for the sound of familiar 
voices they once knew and loved, and in neglect because 
new owners rarely come to them unless forced to. Each 
has its memories and traditions, — perhaps a few bright 
flowers grown among many, many tears. 

The old Bradford Mansion should have fallen when 
its quaint little mistress died. They were of another 
period, but their pictures still live in the minds of many, 
— a lady in a sedan chair, and a home of the old regime. 

336 



INDEX 



Adams, John, 271, 272, 275, 

286, 289, 297 
Adams, Mrs. John, 42 
Alden, Abigail, 228 
Alexander, Lady Catherine, 234 
Alexander, Lady Mary, 234 
Allen, Mrs., 311 
Ancaster, Lady, 257 
Andre, Major John, 62, 142 
Angus, Captain John, 162 
Anne (Queen of England), 157, 

188 
Anterroches, Caesar D', 125 
Anterroches, Chevalier D', 124 
Antoinette, Marie (Queen of 

France), loi, 221 
Arblay, Madame D' (Frances 
Burney), 142 

Arnold, Benedict, 14, 242, 288 

Arnold, Colonel Jacob, 204 

Ashburton, Lord (Alexander Bar- 
ing), 53 

Astor, John Jacob, 47, 5° 

Atkinson (family), 320 

Auboyneau (family), 75 

Ay mar (family), 55 

B 

Bainbridge (family), 272, 302 
Bainbridge, Miss, 197 
22 



Baldwin, Mima, 81 

Bancroft (family), 55 

Banks (dramatist), 153 

Barber, Colonel, 122 

Barlow, Joel, 149 

Barnes, Rev. Albert, 225 

Barnet, Doctor, 127 

Barrow, Doctor, 27 

Barry, Doctor, 16 

Bartow, Theodosius, 152 

Bartow, Thomas, 157 

Bayard (family), 335 

Bayard, William, 22 

Beal, Count Peter Francis, 283 

Beatty (family), 272 

Beauharnais, Queen Hortense, 294 

Beckett, Henry, 298 

Beckett, Sir John, 298 

Bedford, Gunning, 166 

Beekman, John K., 50 

Belcher, Governor Johnathan, 121, 
254 

Bell, Mrs. Andrew, 137 

Benezet, Daniel, 1 5 5 

Benezet, John Stephen, I 5 5 

Benezet, Sarah, 155 

Benson, Egbert, 120 

Benson (family), 15 

Beresford (family), 305 

Berkeley, Helen, 294 

Biddle (family), 221 
337 



INDEX 



Biddle, Nicholas, 54, 294 
Bingham, Mrs. William, 142 
Binney (family), 302, 335 
Binney, Horace, 269 
Birch, James, 140 
Black (family), 320 
Bland, Theodoric, I 20 
Bleecker (family), 168 
Bloomfield, Governor, 140 
Bolingbroke, Lord, 1 1 4 
Bonaparte, Charlotte Julie, 284, 

294, 301 
Bonaparte, Joseph, 137, 277, 

281, 283, 284, 291, 297 
Bonaparte, Pauline, 294, 296 
Bonaparte, Princess Zenaide, 294, 

299 
Bonaparte, Queen Caroline, 304 
Bonneville, Madame De, 220 
Borden, Ann, 286 
Borden, Colonel, 288 
Borden (family), 288 
Borden, Joseph, 288 
Boudinot, Annis, 1 1 6 
Boudinot, Catherine, 125 
Boudinot, Elias, 115, 252 
Boudmot, Jane J., 333 
Boudinot, Judge Elisha, 86 
Boudinot, Susan, 1 1 7 
Boudinot, Susan Vergerau, 332 
Bowes, Sir Francis, 266 
Bradford, William, 117, 166 
Bradford, Mrs. William, 332 
Brainard, John, 320 
Brakeley, Mr. J. Turner, 303 
Brearley (family), 272 



Breck, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel, 85 

Breeze (family), 253 

Brian (family), 326 

Brouchy, Marshall, 283 

Brown, Andrew, 176 

Brown, Captain, 73, 74 

Brown (family), 87 

Bruen, Angus, 195 

Bruen, Doctor Alexander M., 

138 
Bruen (family), 87 
Bruen, Matthias, 138 
Brugiere, Madame, 53 
Bryant, Mary, 265 
Burnet (family), 87 
Burnet, William, 152 
Burns, Doctor, 304 
Burr, Aaron, 20, 23—26, 217 
Burr, Mrs. Aaron, 82 
Burr, Rev. Aaron, 78, 79 
Burrowes, Hope, 196 
Burrowes, John, 175, 195 
Burrowes, John, Junior, 176 
Burrowes, Major John, 159 
Burrowes, Rachel, 195 
Butler, Miss, 162 
Butler, Pierce, 171 
Byrd, Colonel, 178 



Cadwalader, Elizabeth, 271 
Cadwalader (famiJy), 272 
Cadwalader, Mary, 27 1 
Cadwalader, Rebecca, 271, 274 
Caliban, 87 
Campan, Madame, 307 



338 



INDEX 



Campbell, Mrs., 135 

Campfield, Doctor Jabez, 209, 

2 19 
Canino, Prince de, 299 
Carroll, Charles, i 20 
Carroll, Mrs. Charles (Harriet 

Chew), 332 
Carroll (family), 275 
Carteret, Philip, 99 
Cass (family), 168 
Chalkley (family), 287 
Champe, Sergeant, 69 
Charmantal, Edmund Charles 

Genet, de, 307 
Chastellux, Marquis de, 272 
Chaunse, Lady Jeanne Franq;oise 

Tessier de, 125 
Chauncey (family), 335 
Chevalier, Demoiselles, 267 
Chew (family), 287 
Church, Angelica, 85, 215 
Church, Mrs. Benjamin Schuyler, 

214 
Church, Catherine, 2 1 1 
Church, Elizabeth, 2 1 4 
Church, John Barker, 84, 214 
Church, Philip, 56 
Clark, Joseph, 255 
Clark, Samuel, 3 2 1 
Clauzel (family), 297 
Clay, Henry, 32, 124, 294, 297 
Cleves, Grand Duke of, 294 
Clews (manufacturer), 43 
Clinton, Governor George, 307 
Clinton, Sir Henry, 183 
Clymes (family), 272, 275 



Cobb, General, 260 

Cobbett, William, 86, 145 

Cochrane, Doctor, 2 I 3 

Cochrane, Mrs. Elizabeth, 233 

Coe (family), 87 

Colden, Cadwalader D., 22 

Cole (family), 329 

Colfax, Lieutenant William, 70 

Collins, Isaac, 232 

Colts (family), 55 

Condict, Charlotte, 230 

Condict, Colonel Ebenezer, 227 

Condict, Mrs. Silas, 228 

Conway, Moncure Daniel, 3 i 3 

Cooper, Billy, 322 

Cooper, Commodore James P., 

329 
Cooper, James Fenimore, 322 

Cornelison, Dominie, 70, 71 

Cornwallis, Lord, 63, 255 

Cortlandt (family), 95 

Couvert (family), 302 

Covenhoven (family), 272 

Covenhoven, John, 253 

Cox, Catherine, 267 

Cox, Colonel John, 265 

Cox, Elizabeth, 267 

Cox, Esther, 267 

Cox (family), 302 

Cox, Mary, 267 

Cox, Rachel, 267 

Cox, Rebecca, 267 

Coxe, Doctor John Redman, 40, 

267 
Creighton, Hugh, 328 
Cruger, Bentram Peter, 2 1 1 



339 



INDEX 



Cruger, Nicholas, 2 1 1 
Cruger, The Misses, 214 
Cumming, Mary, 80 
Cutler, Massenah, 238 
Cutter, Granny, 69 

D 

Dagworthy, Colonel John, 1 96 

Dagworthy (family), 272 

Dalton, Tristam, 1 20 

Day, Phcebe, 227 

Dayton (family), 335 

Dayton, Jonathan I., 115 

Deale, Major, 136 

Deas, Captain, 56 

Decatur, John, 91 

Decatur, Stephen, 91 

De Chaumont (family), 283 

De Klyn, Barnt, 278, 279, 281 

De Klyn (family), 272 

De Klyn, Kitty, 279, 280 

Denise (family), 186 

De Peyster, Frederick, 41 

Desborough, Captain, 185 

Desmonette (family), 297 

De Vere (family), 236 

Dey, Anthony, i 3 

Dickens, Charles, 54, 56 

Dickinson (family), 269, 271, 
275, 302 

Dickinson, General, 271, 275 

Dickinson, John, 276 

Dickinson, Jonathan, 230 

Dickinson, Major-General Phile- 
mon, 270 

Dickinson, Mary, 271, 276 



Dickinson, Mrs., 271, 274 
Dickinson, Samuel, 276 
Digby, Admiral, 75 
Dix, Warren R., 124 
Doane, Bishop, 335 
Dodd (family), 23 
Dorchester, Lord, 109 
Doughty, General John, 208 
Droilet (family), 75 
Dryden, John, 1 1 9 
Duer, Colonel William, 236 
Dunlap, Samuel, 152 
Dunlap, William, 162, 261 
Duponceau, Pierre, 250 
Durant, Charles, 25 
Dwight, Theodore, 148 
Dwight, Timothy, 148 

E 

Eacker, George, 56 
Eayres, Remembrance, 3 1 9 
Edge, Isaac, 32 
Edge, M. Louise, 32 
Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, 144 
Edwards, Rev. Jonathan, 79 
Edwards, Mrs. Jonathan, 1 2 5 
English (family), 179 
Erskine, Colonel, 222 
Erskine (family), 272 
Ewald, Captain James, 288 



Falck, Mrs. Sarah, 178 
Far quhar (playwright), I 53 
Person, Count Jean de, 268 



340 



INDEX 



Fielding, Henry, z6i 
Fitzharding, Robert, i 5 5 
Fitzherbert, Mrs., 214 
Fleming (family), 329 
Florizel, Prince, 274 
Floyd, Catherine, 168 
Floyd, General William, 168 
Foille, Joseph de la, 284 
Forbes, Sir William, 193 
Ford, Colonel Jacob, Junior, 201 
Ford, Mrs. Theodosia, 201 
Forman, Captain William, 185 
Forman, Daniel, 172 
Forman, David, 192 
Forman, Major Samuel, 169 
Forman, Mary, 191 
Forman, Mrs. Alice, 188 
Forman, Nelly (see Mrs. Fre- 

neau), 1 16 
Forman, William Gordon, 188 
Fortesque, Colonel, 275 
Fox (actor), 289 
Fox, Charles, 171, 215 
Fox, George, 276 
Francis, Sir Philip, 214 
Francis, Tench, 3 1 6 
Frankland, Lady, 130 
Franklin, Benjamin, 97, 132 
Franklin, Governor William, 132, 

135. I39» 275> 292, 331 
Fraser, Caroline Georgina, 305 
Fraser, Jane, 3 i i 
Fraser, Major, 304 
Fraser, Mrs. Anne Langton, 304 
Fredereci, Francois, 301 
French, Mary, 328 



Freneau, Philip, 75, 145, 196, 

250 
Freneau, Mrs. Philip, 180, 195 
Freneau, Pierre, 164 
Fulton, Robert, 22, 40 
Furman, Major Ware, 241 



Gage, Lord, 214 

Gandy, Atlantis, 3 1 9 

Gautier, Mrs. Andrew, -j"] 

George IIL, 29 

George IV., 207, 217 

Gerard, Monsieur, 1 1 o 

Gifford, Archy, 87 

Gimbell, Stephen H., 122 

Girard (family), 297 

Girard, Mrs., 322 

Girard, Stephen, 323 

Glover (family), 15 

Golden, Mayor, 66 

Gordon, Duchess of, 237 

Gore, Captain, 185 

Gouverneur, Abraham, 102 

Gouverneur, Nicholas, loi 

Gracie, Archibald, 53, 131 

Gracie, Sally, 53 

Grandison, Sir Charles, 239 

Grant, General, 195 

Grasse, Admiral De, 172 

Green, Jane C, 196 

Greene (family), 253, 272, 276, 

302 
Greene, General, 35, 202, 206, 

222, 236, 242 
Greene, General and Mrs., 248 



341 



INDEX 



Grenville (family), 301 
Guest, Misses, 290 

H 

Hall, John, 3 I 3 
Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 48 
Hamilton, Alexander, 24, 35, 59, 

84, 124, 162, 203, 205, 210, 

218, 222, 275 
Hamilton, Angelica, 275 
Hamilton, Lady, 257 
Hamilton, Philip, 56 
Hand, Colonel, 222 
Harland, Marian, 252 
Harrison, William Henry, 1 1 3 
Hatfield (family), 237 
Hauteville, Susan Grand d', 100 
Hawke, Admiral, 88 
Hedden, Mrs., 21, 23, 26 
Henderson, Alexander, 193 
Henderson, Doctor Thomas, 184, 

192, 194 
Henderson, Eliza, 195 
Henry, Prince William, 250 
Herring, James, 122 
Hewitt (family), 269 
Hoffman, Matilda, 104 
Holmes, Colonel, 1 80 
Holmes, Sally, 187 
Hompasch, Baron, 114 
Hone, Mayor Philip, 56 
Hopkinson (family), 285 
Hopkinson, Francis, 285, 286, 

287, 289 
Hopkinson, Joseph, 290, 301 
Hopkinson, Mrs. Joseph, 290 



Hopkinson, Mrs., 289 
Hornblower, Josiah, i 8 
Howard, Sir Robert, 1 1 9 
Howe, Lord, 266 
Howell (family), 192, 272 
Hudson, Henry, 39 
Humphreys, General David, 260 
Hunt, Major, i 3 
Hunter (family), 66 
Huntington (family), 87 
Hyndshaw, Rev. James, 230 



Ichabod, Mrs,, 88 
Irving, Pierre M., 104 
Irving, Washington, 49, 87 
Irving, William, 102 
Izard, Ralph, i 20 
Izard, Mrs. Ralph, 171 



Jackson, Colonel, 222 
Jackson (family), 272 
Jay, John, 75, iio, iii, 120, 

168 
Jay, Mrs. John, 238 
Jefferson, Thomas, 86, 148, 275 
Jenkins, Captain, 37 
Johns, Rev. Timothy, 201, 228 
Johnson, Samuel, I 20 
Jouet, Cavalier, 1 1 5 
Jouneau (family), 75 
Jumel, Madame, 24, 47 
Jumel, Stephen, 2 1 8 
Junot, Madame, 303 



342 



INDEX 



K 

Kalb, Baron de, 222 

Kay, Doctor De, 52 

Kean, John, 1 14 

Kearny, Gertrude Parker, 156 

Kearny, James Hude, 156 

Kearny, Major James, 1 40 

Kearny, Michael, 139, 140 

Kearny, Ravaud, 159 

Kemble, Frances Anne, 24, 55 

Kemble, Gouverneur, loi 

Kennedy, Archibald, 100 

Kennedy (family), 237 

Kennedy, Lieutenant, 185 

Kester (body-servant), 23 

Keys, Miss, 286 

Kidd, Captain, 133, 165 

Kimball (family), 95 

King, Charles, 13, 53 

King (family), 304 

King, Jacob, 226 

King, James Gore, 52, 57 

King, Rufus, 52 

Kingsford (family), 37 

Kirkbride, Colonel, 290 

Kirkbride, Josiah, 3 1 2 

Kirkbride, Polly, 3 i 5 

Kissam (family), 23 

Kneller, Sir Godfrey, i 24 

Knox (family), 276 

Knox, General Henry, 81, 8 

120 
Knox, Julia, 82 
Knox, Rev. Hugh, 2 I 2 
Kollock, Shepard, i i 8 
Kosciusko, Thaddeus, i 1 9 



La Coste, France, 293 
Lafayette, George Washington, i 8 
Lafayette, Marquis de, 17, 18, 

65, 276, 297 
Lalor, Miss Caroline, 281 
Lamb, Charles, 320 
Lancey, Miss De, 1 7 1 
Lane, Aaron, 1 1 8 
Lawrence, Captain James, 140, 

150, 189, 331 
Lawrence, John, i 20 
Lawrence, Miss Elizabeth, i 1 6 
Leadbeater, Alacia, i 7 3 
Leadbeater, Edward, 173 
Leadbeater (family), 55 
Ledyard (family), 168 
Lee, Arthur, 120 
Lee, Henry, 120, 250 
Lehre, Colonel, 1 70 
Le Roy (family), 75 
Leslie, Governor Jacob, 102 
Lilly, Captain, 243, 249 
Lincoln (family), 276 
Lincoln, General Benjamin, 260 
Lippencott (family), 186 
Littlefield, Miss, 249 
Livingston, Brackholst, 166 
Livingston, Robert, Chancellor, 

120, 207, 217 
2, Livingston (family), 108, 212, 

225, 275, 323 
Livingston, Governor William, 39, 

62, 82 
Livingston, John, 1 1 4 
Livingston, Kitty, 109, 207 
343 



INDEX 



Livingston, Sarah (Mrs. John Jay), 

109 
Livingston, Susan, 109 
Logan, Rev. Doctor, 316 
Lott, Cornelia, 249 
Lott (family), 237 
Louis XVL, 14, 221, 268 
Luzerne, Chevalier de la, 204 
Lydig (family), 55 
Lynch, Judge, 1 7 
Lyons (family), 17 

M 

Macwhorter, Rev. Alexander, 80, 

81 
Madison, Dolly, 326 
Madison, James, 1 66 
Malherbes, Monsieur, 125 
Malleck, Timothy, 326 
Mailliard, Adolph, 293 
Mailliard, Louis, 293, 303 
Marencille, Julie du Buc de, 129 
Massue, Comte, 221 
Mayo, Colonel John, 128 
McGee, Mrs, Flavel (Julia Ran- 
dolph), 199 
McKeen (family), 287 
Meade, Ambassador, 162 
Melbourne, Lord, 2 1 4 
Mercelis (family), 36 
Mercer, General Hugh, 35 
Meridith (family), 272 
Meridith, Samuel, 276 
Mersereau, Judge David, 25 
Michaux, Andre, 14 
Middleton (family), 275, 308 



Middleton, Lady Mary, 171 

Miller, Caleb, 30 

Mills, Benjamin, 38 

Mills, John F., 36 

Miralles, Don Juan de, 1 10, 204 

Mitchell, L (dancing-master), 93 

Mitchell, Rev. Alexander, 166 

Moncton, Lieutenant-Colonel, 185 

M'ontgomerie (family), 163 

Moore, Thomas, 289 

Moreau (family), 302 

Moreau, Madame, 275 

Morris (family), 272, 275, 287, 

302 
Morris, Gouverneur, 275 
Morris, Robert, 275, 316 
Mouchy, Due de, 310 
Murat, Achille, 310 
Murat, Anna, 3 i o 
Murat, Joachim, 304 
Murat, Lucien, 3 i 5 
Musignano, Prince de, 294, 302 

N 

Napoleon L, 281 

Napoleon III., 282, 294, 297 

Neau (family), 75 

Nevill, Judge, 162 

Newbold (family), 320 

Nicholson, Kitty, 315 

Niemcewicz, Count, 1 1 4 



Odell, Jonathan, 234 
Ogden, Charles H., 224 



344 



INDEX 



Ogden (family), 87, 335 
Ogden, Robert, i i 5 
O'Rielly, Patrick, 173 
Otis, Mercy, 1 16 
Otway (dramatist), 153 



Prevost, Captain Frederick, 152 
Prevost, Sir George, 152 
Prevost, Theodosia (Mrs. Aaron 

Burr), 152 
Price (family), 264 
Prior, Jacob, 34, 36 



Paine, Thomas, 20, 290, 312 

Palmer, Nathan, 324 

Parabeau, Madame, 37 

Parker, Betsy, 141, 160, 162 

Parker, James, 158, 160 

Parker, Janet, 160, 162 

Parkhurst, Henry L., 94 

Parton, J., 24 

Paterson (family), 95 

Paterson, Governor William, 199 

Pau, Mrs. de, 172 

Paulding, James Kirke, 102 

Peale, James, 262 

Pell, Margaret, i 5 3 

Penn, William, 322 

Pennington, Mr. and Mrs. E., 143 

Peppet, Lucretia, 3 1 9 

Pepsys, Mrs., 157 

Pepsys, Samuel, 99, 119 

Perry, Commodore, 57 

Peters, Judge Richard, 289 

Piatt (family), 186 

Pierson, Emeline G., 123 

Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth, 170 

Pinckney, Mrs., 332 

Pintard, Lucy, 273 

Pitt (family), 29 

Pope, Mrs., 153 

Porter, Admiral, 87, 162 



Quincy, Mrs. Eliza Susan Mor- 
ton, 232 

R 

RadclifF, Jacob, i 3 
Ramsey, Pemberton, 92 
Randolph (family), 55, 253 
Ratbone, John, 137 
Redman (family), 302 
Reed (family), 272 
Reichstad, Due de, 297 
Revere, General Joseph, 226 
Revere, Paul, 226 
Reynolds, Broughton, i i 5 
Richard (family), 298 
Riche, Polly, 288 
Ricketts, Miss, 243 
Ridley, Matthew, 114 
Riker, Richard, 57 
Rives, Mrs., 273 
Robinson, Francis, 88 
Robinson, Mrs., 206 
Rockford, Lord, 292 
Rogers, William, 324 
Roosevelt, Isaac, 14 
Roosevelt, Maria, 14 
Rush, Doctor Benjamin, 316 



345 



Vc 



3 b 



INDEX 



Rush, Mrs. Benjamin, 332 
Rutherford (family), 95, 224, 

272 
Rutherford, Frances, 275 
Rutherford, John, 100 
Rutherford, Robert, 275 



Savage, Annette, 277, 282, 283 
Sayre, Stephen, 292 
Schuyler, Arent, 97 
Schuyler, Colonel Peter, 96 
Schuyler, Elizabeth, 212 
Schuyler (family), 55, 203 
Schuyler, General Philip, 14, 209, 

216, 233 
Schuyler, Hester, 203 
Schuyler, John, 97 
Schuyler, Mayor Peter, 96 
Scott, General Winiield, 127 
Scott, Sir Walter, 193 
Scribblerus, Madame, 141 
Searle, John, 22 
Seeman (brothers), 22 
Selkirk, Alexander, 186 
Seward, Miss and Mr., 144 
Shelburne, Earl of, 237 
Shippen (family), 287, 302 
Shippen, Miss, 242, 288 
Shreve, Charles, 321 
Shreve, Colonel Israel, 322 
Shreve, Richard Cox, 320 
Siddons, Mrs. Sarah, 153, 217 
Sinclair, Sir John, 268 
Sindley (family), 294 
Singeron, Count August de, 220 



Sip, Claas Ariance, 61 

Sip, Richard G. , 66 

Sip, Judge Peter, 66 

Skinner (family), 236 

Skinner, Rev. William, 159 

Smillie (artist), 43 

Smith, Belcher, 122 

Smith, Charles McKnight, 156 

Smith (family), 272 

Smith, John Russell, 145 

Smith, Kate, 1 1 7 

Smith, Major John, 30, 31 

Smith, Port Royal, I 2 i 

Smith, William, 122 

Smith, William Peartree, 115, 265 

Smythe, Lady, 314 

Smythe, Sir Robert, 3 1 4 

Sneyd, Honora, 142 

Southard (family), 237 

Spencer (family), 212 

Spring, Samuel, 166 

Stael, Madame de, 89 

Steele (family), 234 

Steptoe (family), 234 

Steubens, Baron, 18, 39 

Steubens, John, 39, 40, 41, 45 

Stevens, Colonel, 41, 244 

Stevens, John Cox, 41 

Stevens, Mrs. John, 40, 44 

Stevens, Mrs. Martha Bayard, 45 

Stewart, Commodore, 301 

Stilwell, Ann, 152 

Stilwell, General, 152 

Stirling, Lady Kitty, 124 

Stirhng, Lieutenant-Colonel, 112 

Stirling, Lord, 35, 231 



346 



INDEX 



Stirling, William Alexander, 231 
Stockton, Richard, 1 1 6 
Stockton, Richard IV., 252 
Stratton (family), 320 
Stuart, Gilbert, 327 
Stuyvesant, Governor Peter, 65 
Sulley, 336 

Survilliers, Comte de, 292, 293 
Swartwout, John, 1 04 
Swartwout, Samuel, 104 
Symmes, John Cleves, 1 14 
Symmes, Judge, 199 



Talleyrand, Charles Maurice de, 
84 

Tappen (family), 168 

Tarleton, Colonel, 206 

Temple, Charlotte, 280 

Ten Broeck (family), 87 

Tennent, Gilbert, 193 

Tennent, Rev. William, 80, 166 

Thatcher, Doctor, 204 

Thibaud, Clara, 294 

Thibaud, William, 293, 294 

Thomas, Gabriel, 332 
Throckmorton (family), 186 
Throckmorton, Major, 32 
Tilghman, Anna Maria, 209 
Tilghman, Colonel Tench, 209 
Tinney, Mrs., 193 
Todd, John, 330 
Topray, Madame, 128 
Townley, Colonel Richard, 99 
Townsend (family), 23 
Trelawny, Colonel, 185 



Trueman, Timothy, 232 
Trumbull, General Jonathan, 239 
Trumbull, Misses, 239 
Tucker, Thomas Tudor, 120 

u 

Upham, Major, 109 



Van Buren, Martin, 27, 49 
Van Buskirk, Anna, 'j-i^ 
Van Buskirk (family), 46 
Vanderbilt, Aaron, 36, 37 
Vanderbilt, Commodore, 37 
Vanderbilt, William H., 36 
Van Home (family), 262 
Van Rensselaer (family), 168 
Van Veghten, Derrick, 248 
Van Vorst, Cornelius, 27, 28, 31 
Van Vorst, Faddy, 28 
Van Wagenen, Hartman, 68 
Van Winkle (family), 68 
Varick, Colonel Richard, 13, 18, 

21, 65, 206 
Varick, King, 16 
Vaughan, Lieutenant, 185 
Vincent, Due de, 283 
Vincent (family), 75 
Visme, Philip de, 152 
Vredenburgh (family), 186 

w 

Waddington (family), 15 
Ward (family), 23 
Ward, Sally, 29 



347 



INDEX 



Washington, General, 13, 68, 76, 
82, 88, 101, 119, 124, 188, 
202, 275, 279 

Washington, Mrs., 113, 237 

Watson, Agnes, 140 

Watson, John, 163, 321 

Watts, Doctor, 121, 122 

Watts (family), 234 

Webster, Daniel, 53, 57 

Wegglesworth, Colonel, 30 

Weir (artist), 43 

West, Benjamin, 98, 188, 286 

Wharton (family), 335 

Whitehead, William, 157 

Wickoff, Miss, 191 

Wilcox (family), 272 

WUkens, Isaac, 315 

Wilkinson, General, 222 

WilHam IV., 76 



Williams (family), 272 
Williamson (family), 94 
Williamson, Governor, 1 7 
Willocks (family), 163 
Wilson, Alexander, 300 
Winfield (family), 56 
Winslow, Sallie, 243 
Wintringham, Sir Clifton, 178 
Witherspoon (family), 275 
Wood (family), 267 
WoodhuU, Sarah, 188 
Woodward, R. W., 131 
Woolman, John, 320 
Wright, Joseph, 262 



Zabriske (family), 19 
Zinzendorf, Count, i 5 5 



THE END 



348 



J 928 



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CONGRESS 




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